Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland.

"It is impossible for the town of Sorrowful Mine to be changed by the power of one person alone."

"Whether it's me or Tianxin Lizheng."

Lu Meng said so.

At night, the group of people from Shandi gathered together. They gathered around the campfire, sharing food and warming themselves by the fire like wanderers who met by chance on the road. However, if others heard the topics they talked about during the table, they would just think they were crazy.

Among the Iron Guards that came with the Order of Embers were people from all over the place. Those from Scone would not be shocked by the walls of this abandoned city. Both the town of Scone and their royal city of Admark were equally strong - however, when it came to the scope and breadth, they began to feel at a loss. After all, even Karalia, the most prosperous city in the Shek Kingdom, might not be as good as an ordinary city-state in the United Cities, let alone the former imperial city and mining capital.

The warriors in the swamp did not have such feelings, but since they entered the city, they had encountered no less than ten attacks from the savages in just one day. This was when they were accompanied by local technological hunters. It was hard to imagine what would happen to other teams going deep into the city alone.

Even the dense forest of the swamp, where gangs robbed gangs, was not as chaotic as this - at that time, at least they were under the jurisdiction of the gang leaders, and there was a bit of balance between them.

He is not like the savages wandering among the ruins, who rush forward to die even though they know they cannot win.

Chad revealed the answer to everyone.

"Those people probably couldn't survive a long time ago. Here, population is not an asset but a burden." The former Aikuang Town resident spoke calmly, as if he was describing something very ordinary. "It's almost winter in Aikuang Town. Although it's not the coldest time yet, the original ecology has been broken. Almost every family with excess population has to pick out a stray to 'forage'... If they can find food, it's ok. Most of them will die outside. In fact, they are just looking for their own way out."

He himself was once one of them.

However, after his career as a technology hunter, this past has been forcibly covered up. Unless he actively mentions it, it is difficult to find any trace of it in him.

Now when we talk about them, we realize that they have never left.

"What if there are no extra people at home before winter?" Someone asked curiously. After the depression lagoon, they found that the former technology hunter was closer to everyone and no longer avoided people like before. As a result, they communicated more and got along well. "Will it be better?"

"That's true at the beginning." Without waiting for Chad to speak, Lu Meng took over the conversation for him, "But if they don't store enough supplies, before they consume them all, they themselves will become targets of others - or vice versa, hunting others."

No need to choose specifically.

The whole family are desperadoes.

The man remembered something, looked at Chad's expression and stopped talking awkwardly; while Chad looked at Lu Meng with a hint of surprise, and finally nodded slightly to indicate that he was right.

What surprised Chad was not how confident Lu Meng's tone was, but the naturalness of his words, which were just like what he had just said, as if he had experienced or witnessed it personally.

Obviously, judging from the performance of the resident technology hunters, this Red King should be coming to the Sorrow Mine for the first time, just like most people.

"Hmm... why are you holding a bowl? You're not drinking." Lu Meng was going to continue talking, but he glanced at the apprentice Lu Dai who came halfway and sat there in silence. "It will get cold soon."

"Oh, it's okay." Lu Dai came back to his senses and took a sip along the edge of the bowl. "I always feel that it's not a good idea to eat and drink so much in this atmosphere..."

You know what, after she arrived she realized that these people roasted the bread over the fire and then soaked it in the soup. After the crispy dough and dense pores absorbed the soup, they became soft and dense, filled with the aroma of meat.

She only regretted that she had cooked too much before coming here. Just drinking a few sips of water made the dry food in her stomach swell up, and she couldn't eat more.

"Such sympathy is meaningless. The two mouthfuls you save won't reach the stomachs of the truly starving people." The others were still discussing, and Lu Meng spoke softly, the firelight reflecting on his face, "On the contrary, if the grain can't be sold, our villagers in the swamp will be worried... Instead of worrying about these and being restrained, why not think about how to let everyone eat the same thing as us."

Rude paused.

She never thought about that.

As a teacher, Wolfe never cared about moral education, and Rudai himself felt that it was enough to rely on the simplest acts of kindness... But it seems that the world is so complicated that being a good person is not so easy and simple.

Sometimes, you have to go against your instinct.

Then, it will inevitably be seen as tainted.

Even, it is doing evil.

the wicked……

"I understand." Lu Dai nodded vigorously.

"What do you know now?" Lu Meng frowned in confusion, "What I want to ask is, what happened to the teaching materials I asked you to prepare before?"

There was a strange tenderness that suddenly appeared in the other person's eyes.

"No, nothing." Lu Dai turned back guiltily, "You're talking about that. To be honest, I still need to sort it out. It's all too basic..."

This was a commission that Lu Beiyou had given her before he came. He said that he wanted a set of systematic teaching materials that he had studied and used so far.

Mechanics do print books, but they are only responsible for writing and not teaching. Therefore, even though the knowledge is already written on paper, it is not difficult to obtain as long as you have money, but there are still only a few people who can really learn it, so apprentices still have to be recommended to receive guidance.

It all comes down to one question.

The "curse" of knowledge.

With the mechanics' limited knowledge and the fact that the End of the World was isolated from the outside world, they had no idea what the level of general education was like in the entire continent.

Many issues that are common sense to them may seem like incomprehensible things to outsiders.

It's like even if you have written down the steps on how to peel a banana, some people don't even know what a banana is.

The chicken talks with the duck.

A book filled with such traps and "easy to prove" is undoubtedly not suitable for introduction. This is one of the reasons why "The Holy Fire" of the Oakland Church has a wider influence and spreads further than "The End of the World" - those priests and missionaries have already told the believers about this book over and over again for thousands of years, and they wish they could chew it up, spit it out, and put it together again.

This is not too demanding. The total number of serious mechanics may be only a few hundred. They are too busy with their own research, so it is naturally impossible for them to compete with the monster of the Holy Kingdom that has a large number of troops.

When Lu Dai heard the nameless man's request, he was first wary of whether the other party was asking for Nan Ding, then he thought that the female doctor did not need such a way to get started, and then he asked with interest whether he wanted to learn it himself.

But the answer I got was a strange one.

compulsory education.

Lu Beiyou said so.

Lu Dai was very puzzled as to how the other party could connect two completely unrelated words together. As we all know, education is a privilege and a luxury that others cannot obtain even if they want it.

The so-called obligations are something that everyone tries to avoid, such as military service, labor service, taxes... and the duty to serve the master. As an apprentice, Lu Dai himself knows this very well.

The combination of these two...

She really got a taste of it.

Could this be a usage habit in ancient Chinese? It seems that the teacher asked me to follow the nameless person, which really can broaden my thinking.

Lu Dai was no longer so resistant.

This requirement is not difficult. Rudai’s own path in studying is not that of a genius player. Although he has talent, he is more of a meticulous and solid person, and for this he has worked a lot with Wolff.

She had chased after mechanics all over the city to ask many, even the most basic, questions, so she had a lot of connections since she was a child.

After that, the road becomes wider and wider.

After going through some things, especially the feud between the mechanic and the scholar, Lu Dai couldn't help but feel a sense of crisis. He had long wanted to reorganize his past notes and lay a solid foundation instead of making rapid progress blindly - after all, no matter how hard he tried, he could not surpass his teacher and his senior brother who was a pervert in every sense.

It was just something that happened easily.

But just as Lu Dai herself said, because it was too basic, and she was a meticulous person who would rather have nothing than something shoddy, she was unable to finish sorting it out in the Lagoon Town, so she asked Shi Cha to specially row a pack animal over to carry her information.

Prepare along the way.

"As soon as possible, maybe it will be useful soon." Lu Meng nodded, ended the topic, and rejoined the discussion.

Lu Dai agreed on the surface, but in his heart he concluded that it was actually because this unknown person admired the "culture" of mechanics but was embarrassed to say it out loud. This situation often happened to her herself... and even if she didn't sort out all of them, but just prepared the results of her first few years of study in order, half of the people might have to study for half their lives.

Why are you so anxious?

After all, Lu Dai was still a little proud of her abilities.

Although I can only mutter to myself.

On the other side, the team leaders beside the campfire were already talking about the people they saw on the city wall before entering the Ai Mine Town.

The Shield Guard organization from the Mine Town.

However, compared to the soldiers guarding the ordinary city-states, what surprised people was that these so-called "shield guards" were dressed in tattered clothes. Although they looked like uniforms, they had obviously been passed down for several generations. There were patches of holes on every joint, and the color was washed to gray and white.

As for weapons and equipment, it was even more terrible. The only thing that could be praised was that at least everyone was equipped with a weapon...but the crossbowmen among them were obviously elite, and their iron arrows were all new.

Such troops, not to mention from the perspective of the people of Shan today, even in the tribal period of the past, large clans like Beifeng and Baimei had much better equipment and warriors with much more spirited appearance. After all, they also had to guard against beast disasters and foreign enemies.

He has also fought tough battles.

To this day, it is still an important armed force in Shan that cannot be underestimated.

Even if they were replaced by the most decent shield crossbowmen, who had seen the Verdant Crossbow Team before, even if they had never used long-range weapons, they could tell at a glance that the other party's posture of holding the crossbow was loose. If they had a head-on conflict with the crossbow team, they would be wiped out in one round of shooting on the plain.

The only thing we can rely on is the city wall.

How can such a team be used to defend a city-state?

"Because their purpose is not to defend Aikuan Town at all," the anti-slavery man Bo spoke this time. "I don't know if you have noticed that the city gate we entered through is in the opposite direction."

"And in the town of Sorrow Mine, there are no steps to the wall at all. It has been removed."

"Shield Guard, Shield Guard... It's the shield used by the coalition forces to blockade the Sorrow Mine Town, not the shield used to protect this ruin." Bo looked at Chad, "In the beginning, this garrison should still be the coalition forces of the major city-states, but after so long, if I'm not mistaken..."

"The vast majority of the current shield guards are from the town of Sorrowful Mine."

"That's right." Chad said bluntly, "Joining the Shield Guard or the Tech Hunters... is one of the only ways out for us wild folks."

A person who leaves his hometown.

One is used to guard against one's own compatriots.

In order to reach the depression lagoon, one must first get past the shield guards and then swim across. The water route is longer than the routes in other directions. Chad once estimated that if he were to do it again, he might not be able to succeed.

If they had not taken the crude oil pipeline on their return journey this time, the legendary mysterious trail would have made it impossible for them to reach the Mine Town so quickly.

"That's not surprising..."

The population of Ai Mine Town has dropped sharply from its original size to less than one third now, and after a catastrophe that has not yet ended, it is possible that only one in ten of them will survive. If everyone becomes despair, it will be a sweeping force.

at this time.

Hope and opportunity are the pressure relief valves.

The road to joining the Tech Hunters is bleak and full of dangers, and the Lagoon cannot bear all the "refugees", which is more like a dead end for ordinary people; but becoming a Shield Guard is different, as long as you are ruthless enough, dare to take action, can please others, and have connections... there are no strict requirements to join.

There are even more people in need.

In order to avoid being replaced by others and being driven back into the ranks of the savages, who would then face an even more miserable end - the newly joined shield guards can only abandon everything. Even if they can only live on the city walls for the rest of their lives, they still guard the city walls strictly and dare not make the slightest mistake.

Offer absolute loyalty.

In the repeated riots and attacks, it doesn’t matter how much the shield guards are consumed, because they can be replenished from the enemy.

This is an eternal fratricide.

Until everyone dies.

For the coalition forces, it was much easier to control an orderly organization that depended on them than to control the entire city-state themselves.

(End of this chapter)