Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 187

187. Chapter 187, what is your way of loyalty?

The Crocker Plantation can almost be regarded as the largest plantation in the northern part of Qinggu. The surname Crocker has been passed down here for four generations.

They have always been the owner of the plantation, and gradually developed and expanded. Now, their position in the northern part of Qinggu is very important.

A few months ago, the old master died of illness, and now it is the young Crocker who is in power.

Young people are more ambitious than their predecessors.

Regardless of whether this ambition is reasonable or not, at least, the young Crocker feels that he is a person with great ambitions.

He is not satisfied with just being a local rich man in Qinggu, just like his ancestors, relying on one acre and three mu of land to make a living – although it is others who work and he only eats.

But he thinks that the Crocker family can go one step further.

The disaster in Qinggu this time and the mutual aid association established by the alliance are the excellent opportunities he values.

He actively responded to the establishment of the mutual aid association, and with his own appeal, persuaded and influenced many plantations to join.

This is not difficult.

First of all, the mutual aid association is beneficial and everyone gets what they need. Secondly, as the largest plantation, Crocker Manor has actively responded to the mutual aid association and has indeed played a leading role.

His goal is actually not complicated: he wants to be the controller of the mutual aid association and transform the mutual aid association from a mutual aid organization formed with the assistance of the alliance into a political entity spanning the Qinggu region.

All the people sent by the alliance were excluded from the mutual aid committee and only given the status of observers. The power institutions are under the control of the plantation owners and militia leaders. And he just needs to sit firmly in the position of chairman and be a good leader. Later, it is the gradual improvement of various government mechanisms to truly implement power downward. Of

course, he did not have such a fantasy that he thought that after transforming the mutual aid association into a political entity, he could challenge the alliance and the governor. It’s just that… the so-called alliance is not a centralized government. Since the establishment of the alliance by a generation of governors, we have always been a member of the alliance and have never left the alliance.

Still under the alliance system, but a regional regime with strong autonomy, maintaining a good win-win cooperation relationship with the alliance center, isn’t that good?

Of course, he knew that with the situation in Qinggu region, it would not work to use force against the alliance headquarters. What he wanted to fight for was only political interests. In his opinion, Qinggu region has a population and important food output, which is the basis for negotiations with the alliance headquarters.

Even in the future, it will inevitably be completely swallowed up by the alliance, but at that time, he must give a decent explanation to little Crocker. It is not impossible to become a senior official in the alliance.

But he did not expect that the alliance would not give him time.

Little Crocker was a little panicked.

Has my little thought been seen through? Is the alliance targeting me?

He convened a meeting of the committee members of the mutual aid association.

The venue is at Crocker Manor, which is also the headquarters of the mutual aid association.

A circular hall, low in the middle and gradually rising around. There are wooden tables and chairs on the steps around as seats for the committee members. The round platform in the center is the podium.

In the meeting hall, Crocker stirred the minds of other plantation owners.

Standing in the center of the meeting hall, Crocker was making an impassioned speech.

“I believe many people have received the news that the Central Army Group led by Commander Yan Fangxu is heading south. According to the latest order of the Alliance, we need to provide supplies for this army.”

“Not only food supplies, but also the militias that we have painstakingly established in the past few months must all be incorporated under the command of Commander Yan Fangxu.”

“Look at what happened in the so-called Central Province two months ago. A large number of settlements were abolished; a large number of survivors were arrested by the Alliance; those who had tried their best to maintain the existence of the settlements and protect their people were sent to the guillotine and convicted.”

“The Alliance is planning to take away everything from us, just like they did to the people of the Central Province two months ago.”

His words did stir up the minds of many people.

The sudden southward movement of the Central Army Group did indeed cause panic.

The plantation owners were worried that their industries would be confiscated. Under the policy of the Alliance, it seemed that completely independent and private industries did not exist.

However, even if those thoughts were aroused, people basically remained silent at this moment.

Worry is worry, but… are they going to fight against the alliance because of this?

Let’s not talk about anything else, just look at the attitudes of those militia leaders.

Now, the military force of the Mutual Aid Association is entirely composed of militia groups.

Among the militia leaders, those who were nominated by the manor owners are still okay, and their positions can still be consistent with the manor owners who nominated them for the time being.

But those whitewashed looters who were recruited are completely different.

Being assigned to the command of the Central Army Group… For them, it seems that there is nothing wrong.

The looters who were recruited and whitewashed were forced to do this in the first place, in order to survive. Those manor owners have no grace for them, and they don’t have a fixed industry in the Beiqing Valley area.

Anyway, they are just making a living. If they are included in the sequence of the alliance army, will they starve them?

Maybe there will be a chance to become regular in the future. It would be awesome to be a regular soldier of the alliance.

If you want to engage in military confrontation with the alliance, and expect the militia with a similar mentality to fight hard?

Don’t be funny.

Moreover, let alone direct military confrontation, even if there is no war and the alliance does not use force, the Mutual Aid Association cannot bear just a hostile relationship.

Who can rely on for arms for a militia of more than 100,000 people?

Can the current population of 4 million in the Beiqing Valley survive with food alone? A large number of industrial products and daily necessities also rely on being transported from the Twin Cities, the most important of which is medical assistance.

Without the assistance of the alliance, the Mutual Aid Association will collapse.

To put it bluntly, there is no possibility of any direct confrontation between the two sides.

Little Crocker mentioned the Central Bank Province just now, right?

The Central Bank Province can at least pull out an army of 100,000 people in complete opposition to the Governor and without any assistance. Can the Mutual Aid Association do it? Once hostile, I am afraid that the order formed by the Mutual Aid Association in the Beiqing Valley area over the past two months will collapse by itself. What

‘s more, even if an army is pulled out, what will happen?

Can they still defeat the Alliance’s army? How many days did the 100,000-strong army of the Central Bank Province last?

It was true that everyone was resentful of the Union Army’s sudden move south, but if Crocker thought that he could encourage everyone to follow him to fight the Union head-on, he was dreaming.

No one would follow him to do this.

Of course, Little Crocker didn’t go crazy and think that he could encourage the people in the Mutual Aid Society to do this. Even if he could do it, he wouldn’t do it.

However, after looking at the expressions of the crowd and guessing their mentality, Little Crocker was still a little disappointed.

But he quickly adjusted his mentality.

He continued: “I know you are all afraid in your hearts, thinking, ‘Ah, is this Little Crocker crazy, how dare he say such a thing?’ But I want to tell you that now is indeed a moment of life and death for us. No one wants to give up the assets accumulated by our ancestors for no reason.” “Of course

, we are not going to fight against the Alliance or the Governor. I have no such intention. The Mutual Aid Society was established with the assistance of the Alliance. The Governor has helped us a lot. We, the people of Qinggu, will never repay kindness with enmity. We are a member of the Alliance, in the past, now, and in the future; we will always be loyal to the Emperor and the Governor, and this will not change.”

When he said this, people finally became interested.

At the beginning, he said that the alliance wanted to take away everything from us, as if he was trying to encourage everyone to fight back. But in the following paragraph, he completely changed his tone and said that we should be loyal to the governor and the alliance.

What kind of schizophrenic speech is this? What on

earth do you want to do?

But although his words were very confusing, when he mentioned that he was not really going to rebel against his mother, everyone’s vigilance and alertness were reduced a lot.

People began to look forward to whether this little Crocker really had a good way to protect everyone’s industry without directly confronting the alliance.

“We are loyal to the Governor and the Alliance, but loyalty does not mean stupidity. We must consider the way of our loyalty.”

“We will show our will to the Governor in a non-violent and non-cooperative way. We will refuse to provide supplies to the Alliance’s army, and we will refuse to hand over the command and organization of the militia to the Central Army Group. If there is any direct threat of v*olence, I allow you to temporarily agree to cooperate; but after the threat of v*olence ends, we propose that we will continue to carry out protest actions…”

At this point, Crocker’s speech speed suddenly accelerated and became heavier:

“Commissioners, this is our way of resistance. We will never have any direct confrontation with the Alliance’s army. Strikes, protests, and food supply suspensions will not continue indefinitely. We just need to express our demands in a civilized and bloodless way, and ultimately achieve the goal of negotiating a solution!”

His words shocked people.

Good man, after all this time, it’s just a “non-violent non-cooperation”, right?

But in retrospect, it’s not impossible.

Strikes, demonstrations, withholding of supplies… If they are really facing a gun, there is nothing we can do; but as long as they are not facing a gun, we will do nothing.

How many people are there in the alliance army?

All of them are supervisors in various places?

The two sides will fight each other, and the Qinggu area has always been in such a bad state, how can it continue to be so bad?

But the alliance is different. Can

the governor’s grand cause withstand such delays?

Make yourself a united front value, and then try to get as many benefits as possible at the negotiation table…

This idea seems to be really okay.

But someone raised a question: “This is a good idea, but if the alliance carries out bloody suppression, arrests or even shoots the leaders of the protest, that is, us, then how will you deal with it?”

Little Crocker took a deep breath: “This is the risk we have to face: First, will the alliance do this? Aren’t they afraid of provoking greater resistance? Secondly, we must also protect ourselves. The Qinggu area is very large, or the whole world is very large. We must hide, hide in the wilderness, hide among the crowd. We also have to find a way to ensure that we can still have enough influence on the mutual aid association, food rationing and labor in this situation…” Just

as Little Crocker was talking about his ideas and getting more and more serious, with a ‘creak’, the door of the circular parliament hall was opened.

Little Crocker stopped talking and turned around angrily.

The door of the conference hall was behind the podium where he spoke impassionedly.

Today is not a secret meeting, but it is important enough. He had already instructed people not to allow any interruptions during the meeting. The door of the conference hall should be guarded by someone. How could anyone dare to interrupt the meeting at this time?

But after seeing the person coming, he suppressed his curse.

The person was named Jason Morgan, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance, slightly fat, not tall, and always with a friendly smile on his face. There was nothing special about him.

However, he still made the little Crocker, who was planning how to make trouble and wanted to win a big hand, and who felt that he was full of knowledge, feel a little cold on his back.

Of course, it was not that Jason Morgan himself had any magic.

It was because behind Jason Morgan, there was a symbol of an invincible force that could only be dealt with secretly.

And now, the secret plan was exposed to the sun.

Little Crocker tried hard to think of a way quickly, no matter what it was, but his mind was blank now, as if some physiological mechanism had been triggered, causing his brain to freeze.

Jason Morgan still had that friendly smile on his face. He walked forward a few steps, stood in front of Little Crocker, and said, “It’s a meeting of the Mutual Aid Committee. It’s against the rules of the committee to have no observers present.”

Little Crocker forced a smile.

He wanted to say something harsh, and even thought about calling someone to come over and arrest Jason Morgan who broke in, or even kill him on the spot.

However, after hesitating for a moment, he just said, “I haven’t had time to notify… Mr. Morgan, aren’t you inspecting the disease prevention work in the next park? If I knew you were here, I would definitely ask you to come…”

Morgan waved his hand, “So that’s the case, but it doesn’t matter, now is the right time. On the way here, I saw a lot of militiamen with live ammunition. I thought I would encounter a lot of trouble on the way in, but no one stopped me, and many militia comrades followed me.”

At this point, he waved behind him.

A team of militiamen walked in with guns.

Morgan turned around again, facing Crocker, and said, “Just now I seem to have heard something about ‘non-violent non-cooperation’ and ‘we must consider the way of loyalty’…”

At this point, Morgan’s friendly smile seemed quite gloomy to Crocker.

“That’s a coincidence. Although I don’t know what ‘non-violent non-cooperation’ means, I graduated from the advanced class of Xifeng Zhongsi College and received direct instruction from the Governor. I think I am the most qualified person here to talk about what loyalty is.”

“The way to be loyal, I think this question does not need to be discussed. Even the militia comrades behind me who can’t even read a few words understand this truth deeply:”

“The best way to be loyal is to maintain absolute loyalty. If loyalty is not absolute, it is absolutely disloyal.”

Jason Morgan adjusted the red hat on his head, completely restrained all his smiles, and looked at everyone present with a stern face: “I want to know, how many people still want to discuss more about the way to be loyal?”

(End of this chapter)