Doctor, I'm really strong!

Every time they recruit workers, they first steam several large baskets of meat buns, and deliberately add extra spices, letting the aroma waft around. When everyone gathers around, their mouths greasy and their minds dulled, they advertise the recruitment conditions for the Red Guards factory. The effect is like a black hole catching light; they can't escape it.

The recruitment then became unstoppable. At the beginning, there were only a hundred or so people a day, but later they had to be transported away by car. In particular, those who actually made money and experienced the wonderful life in the city under the Red Guards moved their entire families after returning. One after another, the refugee settlements on the border between Letania and Syracuse were quickly emptied.

These settlements didn't have many people to begin with; a camp with a thousand people was considered a large camp. The Red Guards could easily haul them all away in one round trip with heavy trucks.

Normally, if all the people in these places leave, it won't have much of an impact on Letania. It's just a few hundred or so people. Letania has a total population of over fifty million, so this is nothing.

The problem is that this kind of propaganda will spread.

After the refugee settlements were emptied, the Red Guards' recruitment efforts inevitably infiltrated into Letania. These recruitment points began to appear in some border cities, using the banner of future technology and cooperating with local nobles. It was a win-win situation, with both sides willing to cooperate, and we all had a bright future.

In theory, it's a win-win situation, but people aren't like leeks; once their numbers decrease, they can't be replaced overnight. Once the local young and middle-aged population has been largely depleted, problems quickly arise.

First, the cost of local labor in the border cities of Letania has skyrocketed. This is not a matter of whether you want to or not, but there is simply no one left. Moreover, those who went to work in cities such as Zheligor, Kharkiv, and Yansk are as if they have been bewitched. They come back and take their whole families with them, never to return.

If people are gone, workers are gone, farmers are gone, and tax revenue is gone.

Most importantly, the people recruited by Future Technology have no sense of restraint. They haven't learned the sustainable, exploitative approach that Europe and America used to adopt. Instead, they've started exploiting the population to the point of exhaustion. Isn't it too much that more than 10,000 people from a border city of 20,000 in Letania are going to work for the Red Guards?

These people definitely won't pay taxes to Letania. If you have a problem with that, go find the Red Guards, but they'll most likely send you a Katyusha salute to your entire family.

The lesser nobles were the first to lose their temper. Their serfs began to flee. This had happened before, but one or two were acceptable. Now, however, entire groups of serfs were fleeing together. What's even more outrageous is that these fleeing serfs were being met by others. Even if they were being met, they could at least be a little more discreet. Have you ever seen serfs using heavy artillery to fight back when they were fleeing?

As the number of protesters grew, the high-ranking nobles realized the gravity of the situation, but just as they were preparing to retaliate, a representative of future technology smiled and presented them with a list, leaving them only with impotent rage.

The spices and fabrics used by your Gemini Queens are all imported from our future technology. The food in your markets is basically produced by us, and your cheap industrial products are supplied to our future technology factories. Now you say you want to sanction me? Hahahaha, you're so funny.

It's not that this is the case throughout Letania, but rather that the border regions have been infiltrated too severely. The Red Guard's propaganda tactics have a huge appeal to the lower classes. Unless the nobles of Letania enable the local people to live a comfortable life, or the Red Guard stops recruiting, the population loss will be like the migration of rural populations to big cities—unsolvable.

Using force wasn't out of the question; nobles all had private armies. But the noble lords soon discovered, with a mixture of shock and anger, that these unruly commoners were becoming difficult to manage.

In the past, when you were recruiting in the market, you could get a job if you provided a meal a day. Now, if you offer real money, people will haggle with you. If they're unhappy, they won't work, and some even say they want to go to Ursus to work.

Outrageous! Outrageous! Xi Jinping's followers! A bunch of Xi Jinping's followers! Where do you get the courage to defy the authority of the aristocracy!

The root of all this is, of course, that the local people have better options; otherwise, only a fool would be willing to be treated like a beast of burden.

Enraged nobles can't handle future technology, but I can certainly deal with you commoners.

Well, they really don't understand the principle that it's better to guide than to block.

When faced with the private armies of nobles, the local people would indeed be arrested and thrown onto farms. The problem was that this could easily incite popular uprisings, and even large-scale ones at that.

After all, what came with the Red Guards was not only economics, but also ideology, and the Red Guards also recruited many comrades.

These nobles of the old era still don't understand what it means for times to change.

When Talulah learned that the border nobles of Letania had brutally suppressed civilians who went to work in Ursus, she was completely dumbfounded. Could a ruler with a sound mind do such a thing?

Even if you are feudal lords, we can't have too high expectations of you. We'll cut you in half. According to the most basic logic of economic scale, what you should be doing now is raising prices, not doing the opposite. Economic laws are the high-voltage line of human society, and you dare to step on that line.

Warrior, I hope your ashes can drift far away.

Unsurprisingly, the local people began to resist, and it quickly escalated into a violent uprising.

The local Leitanian comrades procured a large number of weapons through future technology channels, secretly organized the workers into armed forces, and then, on a dark and stormy night, a gunshot shattered a corner of the old order.

History will remember this day: November 11, 1099, the day of the great uprising of the people of Kiel.

Objectively speaking, this was a completely unfair mode of combat. The resistance system and ideology that Liu Jiuli brought to the Red Guards were complete, refined through countless trials, and witnessed by history. The true history of proletarian resistance is long and tortuous, with the Paris Commune being the best example. And such examples need to be experienced many more times in the process of the proletariat's growth.

The Kiel uprising was actually a similar uprising to the Paris Commune, but it was a more mature one.

This is similar to the Paris Commune uprising, where the proletariat overcame all its shortcomings, and there was also the Soviet Union, which remained true to its original aspirations, watching with predatory eyes, while the enemy was a group of feudal lords living in the old era.

There's simply no reason to fail, no matter how hard you look at it.

Even the Red Guards didn't need to take action themselves. With a little guidance from the comrades on the front lines, much of the work could proceed smoothly. Weapons and ammunition were plentiful, and many employees of Future Technology even changed their clothes and joined the battle. The proletarian comrades, with the simplest ideals, spoke different languages ​​and accents, standing in the same trench.

The uprising went very smoothly. On the afternoon of the second day, the people of Kiel announced the establishment of the People's Self-Governing Committee and the Kiel Commune, directly displaying the sign of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and even hanging lampposts on all the nobles.

This scene is exceptionally brutal and impactful on the existing order of Terra.

When the Kiel uprising occurred, Liu Jiuli was with Amiya preparing to deal with the internal problems brought about by the tea party. As a result, this bombshell that was suddenly brought to light disrupted all the plans.

After reviewing the entire Kiel Uprising, Liu Jiuli said with a solemn expression, "From now on, prepare for war."

Section 189: Always Stand in the Sun

(You didn't expect this, did you? I updated this morning! (～￣▽￣)～)

The Kiel uprising disrupted Liu Jiuli's plans. This proletarian show of force caught not only the feudal lords of Letania off guard, but also the Red Guards, the very place where it all originated.

This was a revolution spontaneously organized by the local proletariat under the guidance of advanced ideas. It was a manifestation of the proletarian spirit of resistance and represented the people's subjective pursuit of equality, freedom, and happiness.

The problem is that this makes covert development a public affair.

Although the Red Guards have infiltrated many places and Future Technology has indeed exerted influence through economic means, all of this has been done covertly. Every step has been taken with great care, and the entire process has been carried out under the Red Guards' internal control system. No external forces have been involved in the operation, ensuring a high level of secrecy.

This gave Liu Jiuli the illusion that the Red Guards might control everything. In the surrounding areas, all of the Red Guards' actions were organized, disciplined, and strictly confidential, so there was no need for full international cooperation. This was also to allow the Red Guards to develop stealthily. When the time came to truly make a name for themselves, Liu Jiuli hoped to throw a pair of rockets on the table to stun all the anti-Cave faction.

Even if those people get angry and want to do something, it's like a eunuch visiting a brothel—willing but unable.

But right now, nothing is ready.

"This was my oversight, and I take full responsibility for it."

Talulah stood before Liu Jiuli with a guilty conscience, knowing full well what the emergence of the Kiel Commune meant.

When everything was rife with undercurrents, these self-righteous lords didn't see anything wrong with it. Even if they heard something, they would at most think it was a way to win over the common people.

Surely no one would actually want to give away their hard-earned money to the poor? No way, no way, there can't be anyone that stupid in the world.

That's a terrible sin.

Castro gave it a thumbs up, then hanged the capitalist.

But now the conflict is out in the open. The nobles have discovered that there is a force in the world that doesn’t care about their so-called authority and can hang them on streetlights without any psychological pressure. What do you think their first reaction will be?

Just like when the Soviet Union was first established, their first reaction would definitely be to eliminate the regime, not to seek peace.

This is a natural reaction from the exploiting class; if they didn't have this reaction, they would have been eliminated by nature long ago in the womb of civilized society.

Liu Jiuli shook his head and said, "This is not your problem. I underestimated the people's yearning for a better life, and I underestimated the sincere desire of comrades in other countries to pursue liberation. Things have developed to this point. It may seem dangerous, but it is also an opportunity."

Talulah said worriedly, "But we are like this now..."

Liu Jiuli said coldly, "The enemy never attacks when you are ready. There are no gentlemen's agreements when it comes to class hatred; it's a fight to the death. Now that it has begun, we can no longer hide it. So let's stand up and show our flag!"

If we really look into this, the Red Guards are not at fault at all. It's entirely the fault of the nobles of Letania who are inhumane. Escapes happen every day. If you look at Letania's official data from the past, you'll see that their population loss is enough to build several more cities with hundreds of thousands of people. This in itself speaks volumes about the problems with their ruling system.

Excessive exploitation leads to political instability and internal strife.

From Liu Jiuli's perspective, Letania was just a bunch of disorganized rats. The electoral system sounded good, but in reality, it was the result of the nobles not submitting to each other and lacking a strong central authority. They appeared to be united as a country, but in reality, they were neither sacred, nor Roman, nor an empire. Even the pure water was more centralized than them.

Once such a country faces enormous external pressure, as long as the other side doesn't completely destroy it, it can disintegrate in the blink of an eye. There are countless such stories in history. You can't expect the loyalty of a group of feudal lords.

For the people of Letania, such days were their daily routine, their destiny. Rebellion might not necessarily make things better, so they simply didn't resist and could just give up.

But now the Red Guards are telling them there are better options, giving them the right to choose, and most importantly, they have guns in their hands.

What comes out of the barrel of a gun?

Even an ordinary person carrying a weapon would be tempted to kill; how much more so a resistance organization with faith and a platform?

The result is obvious. The root cause of all this is Leitania's own problems. Even without the influence of the Red Guards, various peasant or urban uprisings frequently occur within the country. In Leitania's history, even during the years of the Witch King's reign of terror, there were more than a dozen similar incidents every year. Now, they are simply repeating yesterday's story in a different way, and their resistance is more resolute than before. That's all.

As for the nobles hanging from the streetlights, you should reflect on why it was you who ended up on the streetlights.

On November 12, 1099, the Red Guards held an emergency internal meeting in Iron Grid. All high-ranking officers were present. The meeting was on high alert, and all Red Guard bases were on high alert.

At the meeting, Liu Jiuli stood up and spoke: "Comrades, the rule of Letania has fired the first shot of liberation. We can no longer hide. Next, we will face the largest siege in Terra's history. All the anti-cave factions will unite to completely strangle the proletarian regime!"

"There will be no room for luck, there is no room for luck. Until we prove our strength, it is a life-or-death struggle between the two sides."

"We will not abandon our comrades in the Kiel Commune, and the enemy will surely discover the true nature of the Red Guards. What we must do is counterattack, resolutely, thoroughly, and ruthlessly counterattack all enemies!"

After Liu Jiuli finished speaking, a cadre asked, "Leader, who is our enemy?"

“Everyone except ourselves,” Liu Jiuli replied.

"And what about our allies?"

"The proletariat of the world."

"But... will they really stand with us?"

"As it stands, no, because they don't understand us yet."

This is also what troubles Liu Jiuli the most. When the Soviet Union was founded, although it faced the encirclement and suppression of capitalism, the proletariat of the world could really unite to resist the attack of the capitalist world. British dockworkers refused to load ships for the army, and the United States had a similar response. The proletariat of the entire capitalist world was shouting.

However, the Red Guards clearly lacked the influence of Soviet Russia, which at least had the support of the Third International. The Red Guards' influence was currently limited to their own area of ​​actual control and the surrounding regions; they couldn't reach anything further.

The Third International's influence extends worldwide, meaning our comrades are everywhere on Terra. The Red Guards, on the other hand, don't have that many comrades to help them. And once the war begins, it's a wonder that the surrounding feudal imperial states remain neutral, let alone support or appease them.

World War I never broke out on the continent of Terra.

The officials present all knew the actual situation, so their expressions were not very good.

"In other words, the Yan Kingdom will also attack us."

"That's for sure, they were also a feudal imperial state."

"If Yan Kingdom sends troops, then Dong Kingdom might also join in the fun."

"Where are our comrades in the East?"

"At this stage, it is impossible to directly confront the state apparatus."

"The Ursus Empire will definitely attack from the west, and with the addition of Letania, we need to divide our forces to resist attacks from four directions."

“Syracuse isn’t honest either, so that should be taken into account.”

"Our comrades in Kazdel will face pressure from Rembitox."

After looking around, it was clear that, apart from the sea creatures in the ocean who wouldn't take advantage of the chaos, the Red Guards were surrounded by enemies, the only difference being whether they were small enemies, large enemies, or mortal enemies.

"Can we win?" Finally, someone asked this question.

"Do you think we might surrender?" Liu Jiuli asked rhetorically.

The crowd looked at each other, and finally someone raised their hand and said, "We can buy time through negotiation."

Liu Jiuli nodded and said, "Negotiation is definitely necessary, but it must be after the fighting. Remember, what cannot be saved on the battlefield will only be lost at the negotiating table!"

After the meeting ended, everyone left with solemn expressions. Liu Jiuli, back in his office, also looked grim, propping his head up with his right hand, seemingly lost in thought.