steel horn

The lead-colored clouds in the sky were thickly stacked, and the wind blowing from the broad river was already a bit chilly. It was already late at night, but the private ferry on the bank of the Hancang River was still bustling with people like daytime.

This is a safe haven nestled at the foot of a very primitive and hidden mountain. In order to avoid paying the imperial port tax, the boatmen of the poor gathered here in private, forming a small private ferry port.It is said that it is a private ferry, but it is still managed by people with background, but the tax collected is much lower than that of the official port of the empire, and it does not check people and goods, many small ships and smuggled ships Just unloading cargo and loading people here, there are many boatmen beside them who are having a hot dinner at the snack stalls on the shore.

Shao Jun's arms were wrapped with bandages, and he was eating kebabs without raising his head while sitting on a small bench. He had already eaten thirty skewers of meat and a large bowl of mutton noodles, and he hadn't seen any signs of slowing down yet. He looked hungry. It looked terrible, so Little Jasmine went to the next door and bought several egg pancakes for him to eat.

Rose whispered: "You can find cheap cars here, and you won't encounter interrogation along the way. It's poor here. When we fought against the Zerg, the land was completely destroyed, there was no oil and water, and no one took care of it, so we could settle down. If we go a little further east, we can apply to become pioneers. The land we get for pioneering is our own, and we can also receive free seeds distributed by the consul. Then we will settle down slowly and continue to help people repair things. , I still have some savings on me, so I can still live on.”

The old man took a long puff of cigarette: "There is a shortage of labor everywhere, and the lords know how to retain talents to make a profit." Seeing that Shao Jun was still eating, Rose smiled and said, "Staying on the boat for a long time, my legs are a little swollen , I’m going out for a walk, and I’ll see if I can buy something for the road.”

Little Jasmine quickly stood up: "I'll accompany you!"

The old man glared at her: "Stay here and watch Xiao Hei and don't let him run around. I'll walk with Rose." Then he glanced at Rose again: "There is no one here. You are a pregnant woman, so you can't be alone. action."

Rose rolled her eyes: "Okay."

The old man got up and walked slowly along the river bank with Rose.

Little Jasmine was already full, so she could only sit on the sidelines bored and watch people fishing on the river bank.

After Shao Jun ate the third egg and cheese pancake, his speed finally slowed down, and he began to drink water in small sips, and then his attention was attracted by the crying of a child.

On the egg and cheese pancake stand next to it, an aunt with brown curly hair in an apron is skillfully beating eggs on the pancake, and then topping it with cheese juice, spices, tomato juice, minced meat, and a few vegetable leaves. He got up and handed it to the boatman who came to buy the burrito.

I just docked a ship, and a group of boatmen just finished unloading cargo and came here to solve their stomach problems, and this egg burrito is cheap and delicious, with vegetables and meat, and it is very hot and fragrant. The customer queue became long The team, the business is very good, and the aunt is very busy in an instant.

But there was a little girl next to her lap, about two or three years old, who kept pulling her leg and crying. The little girl was obviously very sleepy, and kept rubbing her eyes while sobbing: Mom, I want to sleep, I want to be hugged.

But the aunt just pushed her away, and then continued to make burritos quickly. The business came in waves. If you missed this wave, you don’t know when the next wave will be. She needs to pay a lot of money. To be able to set up a stall here to sell, life is always so fucking.

The little girl cried louder, but no one cared about her sleepiness. The boatmen had just been liberated from the exhausting heavy physical work, and their faces were indifferent, just waiting for a bite of hot cake. People care about the crying of the little girl whose mother is right next to her.

Shao Jun looked at it for a while, then suddenly stood up, walked over and stood beside the aunt, and imitated the disposable gloves she hung by the stall, took them over, put them on, and first passed some vegetables and cheese to the aunt Juice bottle, spice bottle, aunt thanked gratefully, and after a while Shao Jun took the spoon in aunt's hand to scoop noodles, beat eggs, rolled in vegetable leaves and sliced ​​meat, every step was the same as aunt's before Did exactly the same.

The aunt looked at him in surprise, but Shao Jun raised his chin to signal her to hug the little girl who was still sobbing and crying.

Suddenly, the aunt's eyes turned red, and she lowered her head and hugged the little girl. The little girl was already extremely sleepy, and all she needed was a hug from her mother. Almost as soon as she was hugged, she leaned her head on her mother's shoulder contentedly. Fell asleep.

The aunt put the baby in the stroller beside her, covered her with a quilt, and then got up to take back her noodle spoon, thanking Shao Jun with red eyes.

This scene fell into the eyes of Rose and the old man who came back from the walk. Rose turned to the old man and said, "Where did you find this child? He is so gentle."

The old man bit his cigarette butt and said vaguely: "It's not Little Jasmine, I tried to pick up the parts by myself at night, and I said I would go the next day, but she insisted on saying that she would come back soon, but she was almost robbed by someone. This child saved her, she saw that he was bleeding and could not speak like a mute, she shook her head when asked where his home was, he seemed to be a homeless man, said that the family needed help anyway, so she brought it back when she talked to herself Yes, I found out that he repaired it really well. I suspected that he was a mech slave raised by some nobleman and ran out. You can see the wound on his neck, it should be a wound on the collar. Being a dog is also a pitiful person. But you also saw yesterday that his manual operation of the mecha is something that ordinary people can't learn, so I am a little worried."

Rose whispered: "He should have received fighting training. Those who can operate mechas must have high mental strength. He can even operate mechas. Have you seen his manners while eating? He should have also received etiquette training. I I feel that he is probably the son of a noble in distress, the empire has just changed a new emperor, and naturally there will be a group of nobles who have fallen and been questioned."

The old man shook his head: "I've never heard of any nobleman with black hair and black eyes. His gene is rare in the empire. He is included in the wanted order in Yueyao City, and he has been hunted down for black-haired and black-eyed people. However, I don't know what trouble he caused, you children are all troublemakers."

Rose smiled and said, "He is a gentle and good person."

The old man was silent for a while and said: "There is a little brother here, and you can be counted as a backer."

Rose said: "He is a good boy, don't treat him too utilitarianly, he saved us."

The old man muttered a few words: "You young people are always like this. The child in your womb will come out again immediately. We need labor. He is a person of unknown origin. Taking him in is also a risk."

Rose was silent for a while and said: "I'm sorry to cause you trouble. I used to be young and always wanted to change the world, but later I realized it was too difficult. Many people can't even protect their own family members. Although they know it's a trouble , but I still want to keep this child.”

The old man turned his head and said stubbornly: "It's good to know that it's wrong, come home and take care of the baby, can't we afford to raise a child? Forget about those messy people."

Rose smiled: "Okay, let's live a good life as a family."

====

Yueyao City.

The registration in the dungeon has come to an end. Although Ke Xia no longer intends to do so, the plan is being pushed forward steadily under the supervision of his own staff. With Leila holding on, Shiratori will be in some key members of the dungeon soon. They were all captured alive by Hua Jianjiu himself, and some other criminals who were stubbornly trying to escape were either arrested or shot on the spot.

Seven days later, the mechanical troops drove directly into the entrances of each air-raid shelter. Under the guidance of the original dungeon residents who volunteered as guides, they cleaned up the holes one by one. All the tunnels were backfilled, and only the original air-raid shelter was kept as a combat-ready air-raid shelter.

There has never been an unprecedented tranquility in Yueyao City.

And Ke Xia also welcomed the visit of Grice, the bishop and deacon of the Temple of Yueyao City.

When the noble deacon of the Holy See saw Ke Xia, he showed some condescending arrogance: "His Royal Highness, we heard that your subordinates have arrested many key members of the White Bird Society, and many of them are members of our church. According to the arrest warrant, we hope that the prince can hand over these witches to us and transfer them to the Holy See Executive Court for punishment."

Ke Xia flatly refused: "I accepted the order of the king to investigate, and the interrogation is still in progress. Because I have important matters, I will send these prisoners back to Sunsun City for interrogation."

Grice held back his temper and said, "Then I wonder if it can be handed over to the Holy See after the interrogation?"

Ke Xia said: "No, as far as I know, these women have declared that they no longer believe in the holy religion and are not applicable to the precepts of the Holy See. After our interrogation, those who have done illegal things are punished by their own national laws. They have not committed major crimes but were bewitched. Released and returned home, the family members should be advised and educated, to have freedom of belief, and the Holy See shall not carry out religious persecution at will."

Grice said angrily: "Once you become a Christian, you will be bound by the canon for life. How can you just believe what you say, and don't believe if you don't believe it? You will be punished by God!"

Ke Xia said: "Being religious is personal freedom, and not believing in religion is of course also personal freedom. National laws are not religious laws. Please make a clear distinction. On the contrary, since they have clearly not believed in religion, it is illegal for the church to punish them without authorization."

Grice turned pale with anger: "Your Highness, even His Majesty, respects our Pope very much, please pay attention to your attitude!"

Ke Xia was surprised: "Your Majesty believes in religion, but I don't. Why should you respect the Pope?"

Grice stood up with a sneer and walked out directly: "Since that's the case, I'll go back and report to the Pope, but Your Highness, are you so fearless, aren't you afraid of God's punishment?"

Ke Xia sneered: "When my parents, siblings were slaughtered, where is God? When I was seriously ill and paralyzed in bed, where was God? Where was God? ?”

Grace said awe-inspiringly: "All the sufferings you have suffered are the sufferings given to you by God! Since you can stand here as a prince and survive those disasters, you are already favored by God! Those who have helped Your people are all sent by God..."

Ke Xia chuckled: "People in the world are always guilty, as long as they suffer, it must be atonement, and if they are blessed, it is a gift from God. With such shamelessness, it is no wonder that they will always be invincible."

Grice's face was flushed red, and he choked out a sentence: "The blasphemer will have his retribution!" He rushed out, but almost bumped into a man with violet melancholy eyes, who was squatting on his shoulders. It was a pet cat, and he couldn't help but look at it twice before leaving.

Seeing his angry face and the white robes of the church on his body, Luo Dan looked at him curiously, and went in after seeing him go. Seeing Ke Xia, he asked blankly, "Are you religious?"

Ke Xia smiled and said, "No, I only believe in myself." He suddenly found it very interesting: "According to the logic of the Holy See just now, Jun is actually my god."

Luo Dan also smiled: "In terms of strength, God is actually just another existence that is much stronger than you. I heard about Youjun's whereabouts? Feng Shao also came over after a while, saying that there is something clue."

Hua Jianfeng walked in from the outside: "I heard that there were people from the church, so I didn't come in. I was afraid of disturbing Ke Xia. I didn't expect His Royal Highness to show you any favors. It's really heartless. Atheist, you make people tremble .”

Ke Xia didn't take it seriously: "Stop talking nonsense, what clues did you find?"

Hua Jianfeng pressed the light screen, opened a map, and opened it up: "Our people screened all the air-raid shelters and tunnels that the second-hand mobile armor might enter along the way, and found that they are likely to enter. This is a bit bad. After all, the Hancang River is too long, and there are countless private ferries along the route. They can go ashore at any private ferry or even not at the ferry at all. They can go ashore at will, and then find a farm at will. A lot of electronic equipment in the empire can't keep up, and your genetic tracking library is only useful in Yueyao City, and it's basically too difficult to find people in such backward and spacious farms and farms."

He looked stern: "This is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack. I'm afraid we really lost him again."

Ke Xia stared at the light screen, and suddenly swipe down with his finger, along the river all the way down, showing a large piece of land on the light screen, he drew a circle there: "There is no need to track and search along the road, It’s so inefficient, you just have to guess where they might go.”

Huajian Feng said: "What do you mean?"

Ke Xia zoomed in on the black land: "Here, the Beiling Blue Plain in the northern part of the empire originally had very fertile land that could grow very rich food, but after the Zerg invaded, this place became one of the battlefields. Although for The entire Blue Star, neither the Alliance nor the Empire, used nuclear or radiation weapons in the Zerg battle, but biological genetic weapons are inevitable."

"The bad result of using a large number of biological weapons is that the cultivated land poisoned by biological weapons and contaminated by genetic weapons has been completely destroyed, and the population has also been lost in large numbers. After the war, the empire only carried out simple pollution control in response to the situation here, but with little effect. So The empire has issued a policy that allows the residents of the empire to open up wasteland here. The reclaimed land can be tax-free for 100 years, and low-interest loans are allowed to purchase related chemicals for pollution control, large-scale farm tools and equipment needed for farming, and house construction. In addition, the seeds are free. "

Rodin exclaimed: "How could the empire formulate such a benevolent government?"

Hua Jianfeng smiled: "Sir, you are really naive. Do you know how many years it will take to grow edible food after being poisoned by biological weapons and genetic pollution treatment? 100 years of tax exemption is basically spent most of the time on pollution control Also, I can guarantee that the control of biological genetic pollution must be a designated monopoly company, which will be very expensive, and low-interest loans and free seeds must be obtained by bribing local officials. People who go to pioneers will accept Another kind of exploitation is likely to repay the so-called low-interest loan in my lifetime. If I guessed correctly, the loan handler will definitely receive a large kickback when disbursing the loan..."

"Exactly the same routine, guess why I know? Because all of this happened in the post-war alliance just now. Anatoly yelled in the study, how many officials were arrested and how many inspection teams were sent down, so the pollution control It can be regarded as a serious implementation. The high-level policy makers may have good intentions, but every link in the implementation of the policy is likely to allow profit-seekers to seize all opportunities to seek benefits."

"Behind the colorful and benevolent government are evil beasts that suck blood and eat people. The alliance that claims to be free and equal is like this. The situation in the empire will only get worse. The displaced people after the war are attracted by seemingly preferential policies and gather in polluted no-man's land Opening up wasteland, thinking that they could get a piece of land to settle down, but they didn't expect to face more ruthless exploitation and blood-sucking."

……

Luo Dan's face was full of shock and regret: "This biological pollution control requires me to formulate a plan. If the country pays for it, from a country's point of view, it doesn't need much money! And it will soon be restored to fertile land. "

Estin rubbed his face, and Ke Xia said: "They are both wanted by the government and hunted down by the White Bird Society, so they can only go there. All the data in the major cities are connected to the Internet, so they can't gain a foothold. The other farms are managed by the lords, and life is not easy, I will ask people to come up with a governance plan as soon as possible."

He glanced at Rodin and bowed slightly: "There is also the biological pollution control plan you mentioned, if possible, it can be the best, but I will write to His Majesty as soon as possible, requesting that it be my fief and carry out treatment. Theoretically, most people here are avoiding it, if I am willing to take over, it should be fine."

Luo Dan said: "I need detailed information on the used biological weapons and genetic weapons, as well as a report on the contamination over there."

Ke Xia said: "I'll give it to you later, thank you very much, if you need anything else, feel free to ask, you can ask Huajianjiu or tell me directly, no problem."

Luo Dan was a little shy: "Don't be so polite, it's all for Jun."

Hua Jianfeng smiled and said, "I really admire His Royal Highness's decisive action, but you may touch the interests of some people behind the genetic pollution control and loans as their own business. You'd better be prepared first."

Ke Xia said indifferently: "As long as it is not the benefit that His Majesty can get, His Majesty will support me."

Hua Jianfeng smiled and said, "Are you willing to be the sword of the imperial family?"

Ke Xia said: "This is his intention. We might as well follow the trend. After all, people who don't do things are worthless. We must always have some value that can be exchanged with others in order to win the right to speak."

"After all, I'm also very curious about what step Ke Hua wants to take. This empire is crumbling, and all classes have their own selfish motives. Where does he have the confidence that he can carry out reforms and consolidate his rule?"