nycdaug Chapter 755 The mob
Chapter 755 The mob
Chapter 755 The mob
Fu Qinghai followed Tong En down into the underground cave.
The vertical shaft-shaped cave was quite deep, about thirty meters long. As Fu Qinghai was climbing down, he suddenly caught the sound of flowing water and began to guess where the shaft led.
"Crack!" "Crack!"
The two landed on solid ground one after the other.
Fu Qinghai turned his head and looked around at his surroundings.
Sure enough, it was the city's sewers.
"This way."
Tong En gestured to follow.
Fu Qinghai followed Tong En as they wandered through the maze-like sewers, passing through sluice gates and branching tunnels, finally arriving at a gate marked "Maintenance Room".
Tong En twisted the valve on the gate with all his might, and the sound of gears turning came from inside the gate. Finally, the heavy, sealed steel gate was slowly opened.
Fu Qinghai looked into the maintenance room, where there was a table surrounded by people, men and women, dressed in various ways, including young people and the elderly.
They also turned to look outside the gate. When they saw the tall, unfamiliar man behind Tong En, they immediately showed signs of tension and vigilance. One of the middle-aged men subconsciously raised his hand and pressed down on a high-powered pistol on the table.
"Tong En? Who is he?"
An old man frowned and asked.
"Don't be nervous, they're one of us."
Tong En raised his hand in acknowledgment and said.
After saying that, she turned to Fu Qinghai and said:
"Come in, Aoyama."
Fu Qinghai lowered his head, stepped over the gate, and entered the not-so-large maintenance room. The people inside were scrutinizing him, looking at him with distrust. Fu Qinghai ignored their stares and calmly found a chair to sit down.
"We're discussing the explosion on Narastia. Why are you calling in a nobody? Has our secret base become a marketplace?"
A young man said in a dissatisfied tone.
"He is the person involved in this incident."
Faced with the doubts, Tong En calmly sat down next to Fu Qinghai and pointed to the man next to her with her thumb.
"what?"
Everyone present was immediately surprised upon hearing this.
“Slitzerbagno told me my name and address before he died, and that’s how he found his way here.”
Tong En briefly explained the cause and effect, including why Fu Qinghai came to Narastia, how he found Slizebagno, and the sudden raid on his home by stormers during the transaction, Slizebagno being shot, and Fu Qinghai subsequently killing the stormers, etc.
"You killed ten stormtroopers?"
An old man looked at Fu Qinghai with suspicion:
"how did you do that?"
"It's not as difficult as you think."
Fu Qinghai smiled faintly and did not explain further.
"So you're a bounty hunter?"
The old man continued to press, saying:
"You need chaincode to access the core area?"
"You could say that. I know what you're trying to ask. I have some personal grudges with the Empire. If you want to hire me to deal with the Empire, I can offer you a discount on my asking price."
Fu Qinghai nodded in agreement and added.
They are indeed a type of bounty hunter, but not the kind of bounty hunter they understand. They are bounty hunters from the cycle of reincarnation, earning assimilation points instead of credit points.
The old man smiled slightly upon hearing this.
He sat up straight, about to speak.
"Wait a moment!"
A young man with short curly hair and a square face suddenly interrupted, looking at Fu Qinghai with hostility and saying:
"This could very well be a trap! Consider the possibility that they deliberately staged an explosion, that they intentionally killed several assault team members, just to gain this person's trust and infiltrate our ranks?"
Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at Fu Qinghai.
"How can you prove you're not a spy for the Empire?"
The young man stared at Fu Qinghai and spoke each word clearly.
Fu Qinghai couldn't help but chuckle. He slowly turned his head and glanced at everyone present. Among them were short, stocky, and sturdy technical workers, well-dressed factory directors, and simply dressed resident couples... Regardless of their status, at this moment, the expressions on their faces all carried a hint of suspicion.
They were all waiting for Fu Qinghai's explanation.
Tong En, who led Fu Qinghai to the meeting, also leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, quietly watching Fu Qinghai, wanting to see how he would explain himself.
"IMHO."
Fu Qinghai clicked his tongue and said with a hint of helplessness:
"Dealing with an organization like yours, wiping out a bunch of... rabble, doesn't require sacrificing ten stormtroopers. You're not worth it."
The entire maintenance room fell silent for a second.
Then everyone burst into an uproar.
"What?" "A rabble?" "What do you mean?"
The crowd looked at each other and expressed their dissatisfaction.
"I don't mean to brag, but I developed most of Fang's industrial robot models, do you understand?"
The balding, bespectacled man looked displeased.
"Kid, do you know that I've worked in the bearing workshop for a full forty-six years? Every single worker in the entire bearing workshop is an apprentice I trained, and they all have to listen to me!"
The short, stocky worker roared, his face flushed red.
"Do you know who you're talking to, bounty hunter from the outer ring? My family owns 80 percent of the Laspe Shipyard, a fortune you couldn't earn in a lifetime as a bounty hunter! How dare you talk to me like that?"
The thin, middle-aged man scoffed angrily.
"He was so rude..."
A woman turned to her husband and complained.
The entire maintenance room was in complete chaos.
The elderly man at the head of the group frowned and was about to speak.
"Oh!"
Fu Qinghai slammed his hand on the table.
A sudden loud bang silenced the entire room instantly. Everyone shut their mouths and stared blankly at Fu Qinghai, the previous chaos and commotion gone.
"Perhaps it's because those involved are often blinded while bystanders see things clearly, but I think everyone here seems to have overlooked one fact—this is a war! Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war."
Fu Qinghai coldly swept his gaze across the crowd:
"I don't know what you're plotting here right now, or what your demands are, but I want to remind you that what you're doing is treason and rebellion in the eyes of the Empire, and they will not hesitate to mobilize their army to suppress you!"
Fu Qinghai pointed at each person present with his finger:
“I don’t care if you’re a resident representative from a certain community, a master craftsman from a certain workshop, or a major shareholder or chief engineer from a certain shipyard… In a war, you all have one common identity: civilians!”
After saying that, he withdrew his left hand, which had been resting on the table, leaving a deep palm print on the edge of the stainless steel table. Everyone who saw this was immediately alarmed.
The Imperial Stormtroopers are one of the three major military orders of the Galactic Empire, alongside the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy. They were reorganized from the clone troopers of the Galactic Republic. Although the "Battle Robe Project" gradually replaced clone soldiers with natural soldiers, greatly reducing the quality of recruits, well-equipped and well-trained Stormtroopers are still not something a group of civilians with no military skills can easily take on.
Even without Tong En's words, the situation was quite clear. This group of people were likely representatives of those from various social strata in Fangduo who refused to cooperate with the Empire. They were secretly gathered in a maintenance room in the city's sewers to discuss how to rebel against the Empire, hence their tense and anxious demeanor. Fu Qinghai didn't know if they could be considered a rebel alliance, but perhaps their precursor—a spontaneously formed resistance organization across the Milky Way.
Of course, if Fu Qinghai randomly killed someone on the spot, the Samsara World would naturally tell him whether these people belonged to the righteous army alliance, but there was no need for that.
"Let me emphasize again, this is a war. Without military power, you have no bargaining chips to negotiate with the Empire. Your expertise, your community prestige, your factory shares are nothing in a war."
Fu Qinghai bluntly pointed out this fact.
Of course, in the modern concept of total war, any civilian is a potential reserve that can be mobilized, and any screw is a war material that can be utilized. However, this mob in front of him clearly does not have this awareness. After the argument just now, Fu Qinghai has already seen that they are not even prepared to fight a war.
"We do not intend to go to war with the Empire."
The balding engineer pushed up his glasses and said in a low voice:
"We just want to fight for our rights."
As expected... Fu Qinghai thought to himself.
"The Empire wants to abolish the Fangdo Starship Shipbuilding Guild and have them directly manage it with their own officials. To put it bluntly, we are only opposing this one thing. We want to call on the planets to unite and make them back down."
The old man looked at Fu Qinghai and said seriously.
With such a small difficulty, why should the empire retreat?
Fu Qinghai thought to himself with disdain.
They generally still harbored naive fantasies, imagining that they could negotiate with the empire and achieve their desired goals through non-violent non-cooperation.
"If this really is a war, but as you said, we are just a group of civilians. We have no military power. What can we use to fight the Empire? Are we going to fight a war that we have no chance of winning and are destined to lose?"
Tong En looked at Fu Qinghai and said sadly.
"Army does not come into existence out of thin air."
Fu Qinghai turned to Tong En and patiently explained:
"No one is born a qualified soldier. Fang Duo can have an army, provided that you have the awareness and determination, and that you have realized that this is a war."
Fangduo is a major shipbuilding center, and its industrial conditions are far better than those in the rural areas during the War of Resistance. With suitable weapons and sufficient training, civilians can become soldiers. However, Fu Qinghai believes that to become a combat-effective army, in addition to weapons and training, it also needs faith—not the kind of religious faith, but a concept and meaning that can persuade others to fight for this war.
Fu Qinghai hoped they would understand his implication: he could help Fang train another army.
Fu Qinghai noticed that after listening to his words, the white-haired old man at the head of the group had fallen into deep thought.
"Aren't we here today to discuss the news of Slizerbagno's death? How did the Empire find him? How was his identity exposed? Shouldn't we be wary of this? Who knows when they might discover us?"
Then the young man spoke again.
Fu Qinghai sensed that he was trying to change the subject.
“Slitzerbagno’s death is irrelevant.”
The old man frowned and waved his hand, saying:
"That guy sells and uses spices, and he's been in contact with too many shady gangsters. It's not surprising that the Empire has information about him. We don't need to bother with him anymore."
"Are all the representatives of the guild present here now?"
Fu Qinghai looked at the old man and asked.
"No, we are just the part of those who are unwilling to submit to the Empire. Some guild members have already decided to accept reality and stop resisting. Other guild members have even become the Empire's lackeys and accomplices. We have no way to persuade all the guild leaders to follow our lead. They do not want to be manipulated by the Empire, but they are also timid and afraid to act."
Tong En spoke first to explain.
"So, you tried to contact them, which means they were also aware of your existence?"
Fu Qinghai looked at Tong En and asked.
Tong En hesitated for two seconds upon hearing this:
"……Yes."
"Then let's assassinate and kidnap! Assassinate those high-ranking guild members who have become lackeys of the empire, to intimidate others who are considering surrendering, and kidnap the families of those high-ranking guild members who are hesitant, to force them to cooperate with us."
Fu Qinghai waved his hand without hesitation and said.
As for how these civilians carried out the assassinations and kidnappings? It was actually very simple. They only needed to provide information about the relevant personnel, and the rest was left to Fu Qinghai.
With Fu Qinghai's current strength, his arrival in Fangduo is like the arrival of the Raven King Corax in Ljucaius. He alone can start an uprising. To the Imperial garrison, Fu Qinghai is equivalent to a Primarch.
After listening to Fu Qinghai's cruel and ruthless advice.
The people in the room looked at each other in bewilderment.
"I disagree with this approach."
The white-haired old man shook his head solemnly and said:
“If we firmly believe that what we are doing is just, then we cannot use unjust and despicable means.”
"If the Empire used the same methods on those guild leaders, do you think they would betray you?"
Fu Qinghai looked at the old man earnestly and asked in return:
"Or do you have complete confidence in them, believing that even in the face of torture and the hostage situation of their families, they will remain tight-lipped and never reveal your existence?"
The old man was speechless when faced with the counter-question.
As the old saying goes: Revolution is not a dinner party.
In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Cassian Andor obtains information about the Death Star from his informant at the Cavlin Ring. This informant should be considered a hero of the Rebel Alliance, but fearing that the wounded informant would not be able to escape the Imperial soldiers' pursuit and that his capture would lead to the leakage of Rebel intelligence, Andor does not hesitate to shoot him in the back and kill him.
It's impossible to conduct underground intelligence work without having to get the blood of innocent people on your hands.
Fu Qinghai used to find these chores too dirty, so he would leave all the dirty work to Number Fifty-Six. But now that Number Fifty-Six wasn't around, he had to do it himself.
The old man once again fell into deep thought.
Fu Qinghai felt he was almost convinced. Since they were already there, they might as well make the best of it. Obtaining the chain code was meant to facilitate a rebellion, and since they had encountered a resistance organization in Fangduo, they might as well launch an uprising here.
Just then, the well-dressed, tall, thin man pulled out a holographic terminal from his pocket, glanced at the information displayed on the screen, and suddenly his expression changed drastically as he exclaimed in surprise:
"The Empire has blockaded all of Fangduo's ports!"
"All the ports?" They've gone mad!
Everyone present was shocked upon hearing the news.
“Narratesia has also been locked down.”
The tall, thin man read the announcement aloud with his head down:
"The reason given was to apprehend fugitives on the satellite."
After he finished speaking, he looked up at Fu Qinghai.
Everyone turned their attention to him.
"You wouldn't be thinking of handing me over, would you?"
Fu Qinghai raised an eyebrow and probed.
"We would never do that."
The white-haired old man immediately rejected the idea, saying:
"As I said before, if we firmly believe that what we are doing is just, then we cannot use unjust and despicable means, and this standard applies to you as well."
“Fangduo has tens of millions of credits worth of goods, materials and parts coming in and out every day. What they are doing is simply disregarding the life and death of the entire planet. These bastards.”
A factory director clutched his head and wailed:
"My shipyard is going to collapse!"
“The entire Fangduoduo will have to shut down, not just your shipyard.”
The engineer next to him shook his head and said in a low voice.
What if essential supplies can't get in?
The couple spoke with great concern:
"Fangduoke doesn't produce food. How long do they plan to blockade us? We don't even know how long our food reserves will last."
"Naturally, the blockade will continue until the fugitive is caught."
The tall, thin man replied meaningfully.
"We can't just sit here and wait to die; we have to think of something."
The white-haired old man spoke with a serious and firm expression.
"We can organize a protest, uniting all the workers of Fangduo to launch a massive protest demonstration on the platform of Fangduo City Airport's take-off and landing zone, demanding that the Empire lift the blockade!"
One of the people present made the suggestion.
"Okay." "Good idea." "I agree."
Everyone agreed with the suggestion.
“I don’t think organizing a protest is a good idea.”
After thinking carefully for a moment, Fu Qinghai said:
"This could be exactly what the empire wants."
"We always have to give it a try, right?"
The tall, thin man spread his hands and asked in return:
"What if we don't protest? Should we hand you over?"
“We can’t expect protests to change the status quo. You know better than I do that the Empire will not give up until it has captured Fangdo. Capturing the fugitive is just an excuse. Think about it carefully. I killed someone on a satellite, and they want to blockade Fangdo. Is it necessary to blockade a planet and its satellite for a mere fugitive? They are deliberately forcing you.”
Fu Qinghai looked at everyone and reminded them again:
"The war has begun from this moment on."
However, judging from the reactions of everyone present...
It seems that few people agree with this conclusion.
…………