Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 494: Ten Days Talk

Xiahou Yan's solo action of sneaking into Thorn City was not just his own willful act, but the Empire did have a lot of work to do in Thorn City, and it needed a master who could move freely under the noses of the orcs to complete it.

Before setting out from the Bloody Front, Grand Duke Rosario specifically instructed Lord Xiahou to find the spy agents planted in the city by Whitehall of Rose City after entering the city.

  Firstly, these agents who have been in Thorn City for quite some time are more familiar with the situation in the city and can provide assistance to the Duke of Frost Maple Ridge who is unfamiliar with the place.

Secondly, ever since the siege began and both the Empire and the Federation had imposed martial law in the Thorn City area, Grand Duke Rosario had not received any news from the Thorn City underground intelligence network for some time.

Therefore, Xiahou Yan's trip into the city was just the right opportunity for him to help Grand Duke Rosario investigate the situation of the undercover agents in the city, in case something went wrong with the intelligence network in Thorn City, while Whitehall in Rose City was still kept in the dark.

Xiahou Yan could quite understand the concerns of Grand Duke Rosario:

As the lord of the Soul-Splitting Land, he also has a huge intelligence agency under his command, which is the "Frost Maple Ridge Military Statistics Bureau" run by Karim Lodge. This small organization, which was originally affiliated with the Frost Maple Ridge Staff Department, has now been incorporated into the Ministry of the Interior, becoming an independent department that can bypass the Minister of the Interior, Elder Joel, and report directly to the lord. Its number of personnel and scope of responsibility are expanding rapidly.

Xiahou Yan knew too well how much money and time it would take to train a qualified agent who could go undercover in enemy territory.

Thorn City is the largest metropolis on the continent, and was once the core battlefield of the Sixth War. The spies sent here by Rose City Whitehall must be the elite of the elite who have been carefully selected.

If the underground intelligence network established by Whitehall in Thorn City was destroyed, it would also mean that the Empire would forever lose dozens of excellent agents - this result was obviously not what Grand Duke Rosario wanted to see.

  However, after talking with the owner of the "Rest Harbor" tavern, Whitehall agent "Tuna", Xiahou Yan still felt a little sad:

Even among the rigorously trained Whitehall agents, most of them were unable to escape the pursuit and blockade of federal security forces in the wartime environment.

"The Haven of Rest", this dirty tavern that looks completely inconspicuous on the outside, is actually almost the only remaining one among the intelligence bases established by Grand Duke Rosario behind enemy lines in Thorn City.

  What made Xiahou Yan feel even worse was that even so, it was hard for him to say how valuable these intelligence bases were:

As "Tuna" said, these agents from the Empire are still human after all, and they will never be able to get into the core circle of the Glorious Federation. They usually work as bartenders, vendors, craftsmen, etc., and mingle with all kinds of people. How much important and valuable intelligence can they get in the end?

What the Empire really needs are "senior" spies who can hold high positions in the Blood Council or the Federation Forces and have access to the most confidential information, rather than a group of minions rolling around at the bottom of society.

However, all these high-level positions are occupied by orcs, and humans have no room to intervene, let alone to incite the green-skinned orcs who attach great importance to honor to rebel.

Xiahou Yan chatted with "Tuna" for a few more words, briefly explained his future work plans, and then quickly said goodbye and left the "Rest Harbor" tavern.

A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. Mr. Xiahou did not want to stay in a spy nest for too long.

However, "Tuna" did provide a valuable piece of information:

Xiahou Yan found the so-called "Second Thorn City 'God-Given Blade' Exhibition" quite interesting.

Today, the City of Thorns was about to be completely besieged by the Imperial Army, but there was still a weapons and equipment exhibition going on in the city, which was really beyond his expectations.

Moreover, according to "Tuna", the highlight of this trade fair was actually the merchants of the demon tribe...

The more Xiahou Yan thought about it, the more he felt that there was something to be found out about this matter, so he decided to take some time to go to the trade fair and take a look.

  After he left the "Harbor of Rest", he leaned against the iron pole street lamp and squinted to check the exhibition poster provided by "Tuna":

According to the information on the poster, the "God-Given Blade" exhibition will be held at 6 o'clock tonight. The address is a club in Midtown, some distance away from Xiahou Yan and "Rest Harbor".

  Xia Houyan looked up at the steam gauge on the lamppost again:

It's just past eight in the morning, and it's still early for the trade fair to start.

He looked around and soon found an open-air breakfast stall not far away: a semi-orc stall owner with furry ears had set up several sheds on the steel grating sidewalk at the foot of a building, with crooked iron tables and chairs placed under the sheds.

The semi-orc stall owner had built a simple oil stove at the edge of the shed and was now standing next to the stove, holding an iron pan, humming a little tune and frying eggs.

Eight o'clock in the morning was actually a little past the breakfast time for residents in the central city. Most of the workers doing manual labor in the factories had finished their meals and went to work as early as five or six in the morning.

  However, there are still many customers at the stall of the sub-orc breakfast stall owner:

Two well-dressed orcs were sitting on seats in the street, biting on greasy skewers of meat and chatting loudly in Orcish; a thin elf wearing glasses and dressed like a clerk was huddled in a corner, tightly clutching a cup of hot coffee, as if he was beginning to feel cold due to the cooler weather; further away, several young people of different races, about ten years old, were happily munching on braised pork pancakes, as if they had skipped school to feast.

Whenever Xiahou Yan saw the various forms of life in Thorn City, he had a strange sense of dislocation:

This city was clearly on the front line of the war, besieged by the Imperial Army, and about to face a brutal siege, but the daily lives of the city's residents seemed to be proceeding in an orderly manner, with none of the looting, chaos, and escape that often occurred in other cities before a war.

Xiahou Yan was almost certain that this was a calm temperament inherent in Thorn City and its residents.

Firstly, this city has experienced countless wars since ancient times. Besieges and sieges have almost become a routine in Thorn City. Those who wanted to escape had already escaped, and the residents who stayed in the city had long been accustomed to it.

Secondly, Thorn City, which had long been the economic center of the continent, was not as afraid of siege as other cities: within this three-dimensional metropolis, there was both agricultural production in the lower city and industrial operations in the central city. The entire city was completely self-sufficient and did not rely on external resources.

Even if the imperial army surrounded the City of Thorns, the time when famine and riots appeared in this city would definitely be much later than in any other city.

  Xiahou Yan shook his head, walked into the open-air breakfast stall, and sat down on a metal chair. The sub-orc stall owner saw that there were customers, so he flipped the pan very quickly, flipped the fried eggs in the pan into the plate, and then rubbed his hands happily and came over:

"Good morning, God of War. What would you like to eat?"

"Fried sausages, bacon, and a cup of coffee." Xiahou Yan thought for a moment and ordered the breakfast he often had in Frost Maple Ridge.

Since he led his troops to the northern front, he hasn't been back to the Soul-Splitting Land for a long time and he misses home a little.

"No problem." The orc stall owner shrugged, "It's ten silver coins in total. The situation is tense now, and the food prices have increased. Please forgive me."

  Ten silver coins are expensive for this little breakfast, but it is understandable during the war. Xiahou Yan stuck out his tongue, took out a handful of silver coins from his waist and spread them on the table:

"No need to change, just give me two more loaves of bread."

  The orc stall owner was stunned for a moment, then quickly gave a flattering smile, grabbed the silver coins on the table, and ran to fry sausages:

The semi-orc stall owner only took a quick glance to realize that this strange human had casually scattered more than twenty silver coins on the table, more than twice the price of the breakfast!

What do you mean “no change needed”? This money is enough to buy two breakfasts!

Where did this rich fool come from? The stall owner was wondering.

Xiahou Yan ignored the semi-orc stall owner's psychological activities, but sat down at the shiny iron dining table and observed the surrounding environment with interest.

The breakfast stall was located on the side of a three-story brick building in Midtown, two blocks away from the Rest Harbor tavern.

The side walls of the brick building were covered with all kinds of posters, flyers and notices. Xiahou Yan saw at a glance the curfew order issued by the federal army and the poster of the "God-Given Blade" trade show.

Then, as his sight moved, Xiahou Yan suddenly froze.

  Because he suddenly saw that in the middle of all the fancy posters, the huge poster that occupied the absolute center position on this Democracy Wall looked a little familiar to him:

The poster shows a young girl with white hair, red eyes and a hot body. The girl is holding her slender hands and sending seductive kisses to the passers-by outside the poster. Her charming figure is enough to make any man who sees this poster tremble.

Isn't this the virtual idol of our Frost Maple Ridge's "Dark-Souls" project?! Xia Houyan was furious.

  In his impression, hasn't his own virtual idol project always been to only cut the Empire's leeks and not cheat international friends? The bandit idols of the entire East Ice Depot can't even collect the money from the Empire's fans to board the ship, and they have never promoted anything to the Glorious Federation!

But how come the promotional poster of “Dark-Souls” appeared on the wall of Thorn City?

Xiahou Yan stood up hurriedly, approached the poster and looked at it carefully, then he saw something fishy:

This poster was made of fine coated paper and had a nice color. It was undoubtedly a genuine product of the Dongbingku Printing Factory. However, the original posters printed by Dongbingku were all in the common language of the Empire, which was like a mystery to the people of the Federation who were used to speaking Orcish.

This poster of the virtual idol posted on the wall of thorns has been processed by someone unknown:

The character of the virtual idol that constitutes the main body of the poster is intact, but all the places on the poster where the words of the Empire's common language are printed have been wiped off with a scraper and re-filled with the corresponding translated Orc language by hand so that the people of Thorn City can read it.

  In other words, this is a translated poster that was produced after someone translated it into Chinese... no, "animalized" it!

Xia Houyan found a line of small words in the lower right corner of the poster, revealing the initiator of this boring behavior:

"Dark-Souls Project, produced by Miss Mousse Thorn City Poisonous Fan Club."

Xiahou Yan was shocked.

  Although he knew that his virtual idol business was very popular, he never expected that this crappy thing could become this popular!

Even in the federal areas that are not considered as target markets by the Dongbingku operation department, there are actually grassroots fan groups such as "Support Clubs" that do barbecue translation, pirate portering and other work completely free of charge, just to let the general public living in the federal areas also get a glimpse of the virtual idols!

He discovered with some sadness that underneath this huge poster of the girl were not only notices posted by the federal forces and the official Thorn City, but also several propaganda mottos of the God of War faith!

Who says religion has been abandoned by history?

  Human beings have clearly invented an advanced form of religion - fan clubs!

Xiahou Yan realized with some remorse that just as he had brought armored vehicles and blitzkrieg to Frost Maple Ridge, he had also accidentally brought advanced products from Earth, such as the second dimension and fan circles, to the Haven Continent, which then constituted a dimensionality reduction attack on the backward traditional religion of this place.

  When the Supreme Church only dared to secretly let the nuns do some flesh trade to attract believers and collect donations, the "Dark-Souls" project had already used winter pigeons, letters, and picture magazines to expand the business of a group of non-existent girls to the entire continent, replacing the hypocritical and concealed prostitution with open prostitution!

This is modernization!

Just as Xiahou Yan was feeling deeply moved, the owner of the breakfast stall came over with a plate of steaming fried sausages.

"Oh, you like this too?" The stall owner noticed the other person's gaze and pointed at the poster of the virtual idol on the wall with a smile, "This 'Dark-Souls' thing is very popular in the city recently! But the City Lord's Mansion and the army don't like it, and strictly prohibit everyone from passing around related books, newspapers, and pictures. Don't think that this poster is posted now, it will have to be taken down when the inspection team comes."

"Why would the federal government ban this?" Xia Houyan asked, "Isn't it just a few pretty girls?"

"Who said it wasn't? I don't think it's necessary either." The breakfast stall owner put the plate on the table and whispered in a low voice, "I heard that the reason is that someone in the federal army said earlier that these virtual idols don't seem to be a big deal, but the Duke Elliot Igor of Frost Maple Ridge is behind it! This person said that if these things are allowed to continue to spread in the federation, some bad influences will inevitably infiltrate!"

"The fact that he can mention this shows that he is quite knowledgeable." Xiahou Yan was a little surprised. He didn't expect that there would be such a clear-headed person in the Federation.

"It's a pity that no matter how wise this person was, he's already dead." The breakfast stall owner sneered, "The person who said this was a human being like you. His name was William Hyde. Have you heard of him?"

Xiahou Yan looked at the poster of the girl on the wall again, and suddenly he was filled with mixed emotions.