Chapter 528 Our War (X)
"That's the Nosk Federation!"
In a membership-only salon on the busiest commercial street in the East City District of the royal capital, a man with neatly combed hair and wearing a formal coat angrily slammed the newspaper on the coffee table and complained to his companions: "What on earth was the royal family thinking of inviting such a robber to their home?"
"That's right. The Odysseus family just moved away. If it weren't for the 'South' gang taking over the Odysseus territory, those bandits might have come to our doorstep without us knowing anything." Another middle-aged man, also in formal attire, responded with a complaint.
"This is really weird. Could it be that this is why the Odysseus family ran away early?"
"Who knows what's going on in Odysseus now? Can the people in the South stop the Norsks? Is the news broadcast by the Inadre radio station credible?"
"It is said that King's Port saw a fleet coming from Innadri yesterday, but the crew members are not clear about the situation downstream..."
"Too bad, our company still has a batch of goods to be sent to Norsk..."
Most of these membership-based salons have a few aristocratic members, but obviously, the aristocratic members do not need to come to the salon specifically to gather and exchange information... For truly private and important matters, the aristocrats will not go out of their way to go to public places to communicate.
At this moment, the gentlemen who hurried to the party early in the morning were just middle-class people who seemed to be close to the "upper class" but were actually closer to the bottom class.
The undead regime in the south and the royal family in the capital are engaged in a war of public opinion. Although these middle-class elites who have emerged from the common people do not have the information channels of the "upper class", they can vaguely interpret a very ominous sense of danger ... To be more precise, it is a sense of crisis that is closely related to their own jobs.
The royal family has completely broken off relations with the South!
Even the Nosk Federation, a "good neighbor" that all the eastern countries usually avoid, has been invited into the country. It is obvious that the royal family is no longer going to play along this time and is determined to fight to the death with the undead regime!
This terrible premonition of crisis made the middle class in the royal capital even more uneasy than the threat of war.
As the saying goes, the head follows the butt. Although the middle class in the royal capital has no chance to come into contact with the masterpiece of a certain big boss on the Earth plane, the essence of these middle class is still exactly the same . They all have the unique weakness and compromise of this class - they are more afraid of turmoil and change than the ruling class, and oppose all social changes that will have a negative impact on their own property.
The middle class in the royal capital, who depend on the nobles for their livelihood, manage their property and provide professional services to them, hate the undead regime that threatens the status of the nobles; but if the royal family becomes tough and fights with the undead regime, their resentment will turn to the royal family.
Wouldn't it be better for everyone to sit down and play the political game like civilized people? Why bet on the "national destiny"? If you win, it's fine, but if you lose, won't everyone be buried with you?
The middle class pulled their hair out in worry when they thought of the nobles in the three southern territories who were hanged and had their property confiscated - if the nobles in the royal capital were also cut by the razor of the undead regime, who knows how many of these gentlemen present would be unemployed!
Of course, they couldn't say anything about their resentment towards the royal family for looking for trouble, so these middle-class gentlemen could only blame the royal family for finding an unreliable bandit ally... Anyway, the Nosk Federation was famous for being a tyrannical bandit, and everyone in the Eastern Kingdom knew it.
The middle class only dares to complain about the royal family in a roundabout way, but the citizens of the royal capital are not so "polite".
If the news released by the "Tarantan faction" that "enemies are invading us and we are organizing a counterattack" made the atmosphere in the royal capital suddenly tense and made countless citizens feel uneasy, then the news that the royal mouthpiece "refuted" in the newspapers that "friendly countries are entering the country to quell the rebellion" made countless citizens feel absurd.
In the civilian neighborhoods of West City and South City, the bar street of King Harbor West, the Sailor District and other places, countless citizens walked out of their homes in annoyance, gathered with familiar people, and criticized the ridiculous reports in the newspapers with saliva flying.
Brook, who was setting up a shoe-shining stall on the street opposite the Royal Capital Broadcasting Building, saw nearby residents gathering at a tavern at the end of the street early in the morning. From time to time, someone angrily waved newspapers and leaflets secretly printed and distributed by their underground activity group in public, accusing the royal family of coming up with a bad idea.
"I've never heard of asking robbers to come to your house to help you deal with your own family! His Majesty the King is a follower of the Nightmare Butcher!"
"I don't want to go out one day and be told that we Rhine people have become Norse people!"
"The royal family is really confused. Don't they know how overbearing the Nosk Federation is?"
"What are we going to do when the Storm Church comes? Are we going to have to pay two tithes at the same time? We can't afford it!"
"Isn't the high priest of the Gold Coin Church also in our capital? Why doesn't he care about this matter?"
"The Tarantan Undead should hurry up and drive away those Norsks!"
Brooke, who was eavesdropping with his ears perked up, kept a straight face and didn't let his emotions show.
The citizens of the capital city don't really care who will win or lose in the battle between the Undead regime and the royal family for dominance of the country - in this alien world, no, even in many countries and regions on Earth, there is no traditional martial virtue of "every citizen has a share of responsibility for the rise and fall of a country".
But the citizens of the royal capital don’t care who owns the national power, but they care very much about whether their own interests are affected!
The leaflets that the underground activity group distributed late at night were based on the interests of the citizens and they made a very simple calculation for the citizens that even a child could not make wrong:
Everyone knows the tyranny of the Norsk Federation. If they come to help you fight, will they just pack up and leave after the battle? Of course not.
The Nosk Federation is a federation of the Storm Church, which collects church taxes. If the Storm Church does not intend to go to war with the Gold Coin Church head-on, or if the internal struggle cannot produce results in the short term, then the Rhine people will have to pay two tithes.
And the undead regime does not collect additional taxes!
Once the newspapers were published and the accounts were settled, the citizens of the capital, who originally didn't care who would win or lose in the fight between the gods, had to be aroused to show their inclinations...
When there is no choice, the people have to accept whatever policies the royal family, as the symbol of the country's supreme power, comes up with; but if there is a new choice, and this new choice makes people more willing to be human, then it is self-evident which side the people will choose.
“The masses are the most resilient and inclusive group. As long as less is taken from them so that they can survive, they are willing to endure unfair treatment.”
Brooke looked at the citizens who could only express their anger on the streets but could not take any practical actions to protect their own interests, and silently recalled the knowledge that Zhao Zhenzhen had instilled in him.
"But if it's the middle class, the nobility, or the royal family, let alone taking less from them, just asking them to take less of things that don't belong to them, they will be furious and will do everything they can to oppose you, or even eliminate you."
Brook silently turned his head and looked towards the direction of the palace.
Of course he couldn't see the palace from his position, and even if he looked as far as he could, he could only see the high inner city walls.
The palace was still behind the high inner city wall.
The inner city wall that seemed untouchable and unreachable in the distance, in Brook's sight, suddenly overlapped with the outer wall of the club that once trapped him.
Brooke felt a little uncomfortable, but he didn't think of escaping. He just stared at the wall quietly.
That terrible memory hurt Brooke badly, but after being picked up by the undead and learning from Ms. Zhao that helped him understand this world better, Brooke has been able to look at that experience calmly, and calmly analyze and deduce how to eliminate as much as possible that den of evil that should not exist.
"If we want to change this country and this world, we must get more support and more recognition from the public. Fortunately, we can win over the vast majority of people to our side. If we give them fairness, order, and stability, which are trampled on by the royal family and the nobility at will, people will be satisfied."
Brooke murmured softly the words Zhao Zhenzhen had taught him, and the tall inner city wall in his sight became clear, without any double image.
Brooke let out a light breath and turned around again, looking at the increasing number of citizens gathering at the end of the street.
Brook, who has experienced the utter darkness, does not think that these people who are kept in the dark are superficial or stupid; those who are desperate and unable to change the status quo have the right to vent their emotions, even if the way they vent may seem a little unbearable.
"It's okay...soon, everyone will be able to relax."
Brooke murmured silently.
The City Hall would not want the capital to really fall into chaos. If the royal family "cooperates" with the propaganda work and exposes its own ugly face, the real "frontline news" can be released.
August 7, 1033 in the Gregorian calendar, 12 noon.
The Rhine royal family had "lost contact" with the Federal Vanguard General for more than forty hours. Feeling uneasy, Prince Hood ran directly to the Privy Council of the Royal Palace to wait for a telegram from the front. At this time, the Innadri Radio Station, which had claimed in an urgent tone a few hours ago that it was preparing for war in full swing, issued a report that shocked the whole country.
Well...it not only shocked the whole Rhineland.
The broadcasting signal of Innadri Radio Station can almost cover the eastern part of the continent. It can even be received by the countries in the southern part of Middle-earth, the Principality of Shiga across Tarantan, and the Sokri Empire across the Sorenson Mountains. Theoretically, it should have shocked the surrounding countries in the east and southeast of the Napalm continent.
"Now, a quick news flash. Our reporter sent back a telegram that the 30,000-strong Norsk Federation army that invaded our country has been completely wiped out! I repeat, the 30,000-strong Norsk Federation army has been completely wiped out!"
"Our Tarantan Undead Army, good friends of the Rhine people, has captured XX officers and XXX non-commissioned officers from the Allied Forces. The number of captured soldiers is being counted..."
His Royal Highness the First Prince, who was in the outer hall of the palace and was the first to hear the broadcast, immediately fell over in astonishment.
Prince Hood, who was urging the Privy Council to continue sending telegrams, learned the bad news about ten minutes later from the butler who came to report in a cold sweat. He slid off his chair, holding his chest.
In the capital city, the West City District, South City District, King Port West District and other districts, after the news was broadcast, there were bursts of warm cheers...
In the church area, in the Gold Coin Church Cathedral, Priest Atwood, who was enraged by the betrayal of the Rhine royal family after reading the newspaper in the morning, disappeared from his gloomy face after listening to the "Frontline News".
"very good."
With a smile on his face, Priest Atwood stood up in high spirits and ordered the priest to prepare the carriage. He wanted to go to the palace in person.
Priest Atwood was unwilling to intervene in such matters as the internal strife within the Rhine royal family and even the king being placed under house arrest - the Gold Coin Church was not the kind of iron-fisted sect that would interfere with even the coronation of the king within the diocese; as long as church property and tithes were not affected, the Gold Coin Church was not keen on interfering in politics.
But since Prince Hood and the Great Prince have committed such a heinous act of betrayal that disrespects the Church of Gold Coin, and this betrayal is useless and was slapped in the face by the Undead Regime in the blink of an eye, then it is possible that Priest Atwood will have to take an iron-fisted approach!
And just when this broadcast was broadcast, prompting the high-ranking priests of the Gold Coin Church who only cared about their own interests to intervene in person... the Tarantan Undead Army and the Rhine People's Army on the front line had already counterattacked into the Nosk Federation the night before.
At this time, the vast, unorganized and undisciplined army of the undead has already entered the heartland of the Principality of Lionel...
