Arknights? Colonization Ark!

"This is a very special experience for me, which can be called unique even in the long years. But there is one thing I don't quite understand. I hope you can give me an answer."

"Go ahead, you can ask anything you want."

Kasheina turned her head to look at the crowd that was gradually moving away.

"I want to know, what are these people to you, toys or pawns? With all due respect, I don't see any necessity for them to you."

What can they give Zhang Miao?

They had nothing, even their lives were given by Zhang Miao.

This was the only thing Kasheina didn't understand. Whether in terms of resources or population, he should have better partners.

But in Zhang Miao's opinion, the answer to this question may be a little hard to accept.

"Because I like them."

Yes, it’s just that Zhang Miao likes them.

Call him arrogant or conceited, from the first day he woke up, he was unhappy with those who whipped the slaves in the mines. What's more, if he chose those nobles, it would mean that he would promise them power, status, and benefits.

But unfortunately, he didn't want to give any of these things, and he was too lazy to even do the thing of abandoning the donkey after it had served its purpose.

From the very beginning, there was no place for these people on Zhang Miao's side.

"..."

His answer reminded Kashena of a sentence she had read in a book a few days ago.

[Power will guide the knowledge and morality of the society in which it is located and use this to establish social rule]

"I understand. So you want to guide the development of the entire society and make it move according to your wishes."

Arrogant, even crazy, this was the only evaluation Kashena gave to the person in front of her.

But one has to admit that he is indeed capable of doing it.

"So what do you want to do with me?"

"The past between you and Tallulah is your business, I don't want to interfere, and I don't care about the conflict between you and Longmen Wei Yanwu."

"So what do you want from me? And why do you think I will help you?"

"You've already made your decision. I don't know why you wanted to help Tallulah, but it's clear that you've chosen to change sides."

"I want all your snake scale deployments."

The training of a skilled agent cannot be achieved overnight. Balalaika has proven her ability, and Zhang Miao believes that Black Snake will not have only one Balalaika in his hands.

A whole team of well-trained agents who have been working in various places for many years will definitely be a huge help if they can be obtained.

Zhang Miao pointed to the ground

"And I want to know if this place is your Ursus."

If so, then the importance of the black snake herself far exceeds her scales.

Because this means that Kashena can see the shift in the entire society's ideology in real time, and she is immortal...

Just as Zhang Miao expected, Kashena nodded casually.

This is what makes her most different from the other immortals. No matter the charlatan who is staying in the imperial capital now, or the circus running around everywhere, they are all independent and not bound by anyone, but Black Snake is different.

It was born in Ursus and is naturally bound by Ursus.

And this is the land of Ursus and the people of Ursus, why can't it be considered a new Ursus?

"Then we have fun playing together?"

Zhang Miao tentatively stretched out his right hand, but Kashena remained unmoved.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Zhang, the beneficiaries of cooperation are both parties. I only see that you benefit unilaterally, and I get nothing."

"How can you say that? You want a powerful Ursus, isn't this place powerful enough?"

"This is your Terran Human Federation. What does it have to do with me?"

"Is Ursus yours now?"

Zhang Miao's words made Kashena chuckle

"Then shouldn't I thank you for your kindness?"

"Well, why bother? After all, for someone who has already broken with Ursus, there is nothing to lose by joining us, right?"

The fact that the snowfield banditry went wrong has been exposed. Does Kasheina still think she has a second choice?

Don't join

Then just wait for Ursus and Zhang Miao to encircle and suppress us until we die.

Even if Zhang Miao can't do anything to her now, it doesn't mean he won't be able to do anything in the future.

Anyway, ask the doctor, he must know something.

But before he could say anything else, Kashena's hand shook his.

"Then have fun playing together."

Her attitude changed so quickly that even Zhang Miao didn't react.

"Um... OK."

Kashena pulled her hand back

"Honestly, Mr. Zhang, if you had half the emotional intelligence you have when dealing with women during negotiations, you wouldn't be in this situation now."

"What did you say?"

Zhang Miao didn't quite understand why this came up.

Kasheina still had the same expression, as if nothing could affect her.

"...You heard me wrong. I didn't say anything. Now let's talk about what you want my snake scales to do."

Zhang Miao became interested when it came to business. Many things had been unable to be implemented before due to the limited quality of the personnel, but now with the black snake's scales, all the problems could be easily solved.

As for whether Kashena might be an undercover agent stealing information, this kind of thing was not within his consideration at all.

The only information she had access to was from the library. She hadn't even looked at the science and engineering books in those days. She couldn't even solve calculus if you asked her to.

As for liberal arts books, you can do whatever you want. If you blink, I lose.

Do these things have any other uses besides making Ursus die faster?

"I'd like to hear more details."

"I need your snake scales to do two things. First, publicize the Third Army's defeat this time. The more tragic the better, preferably worse than the Blood Peak Battle and the Uka War. Then, push all the responsibility onto the current emperor, preferably through the newspapers run by the new nobles. Don't let the snake scales be exposed."

Now that the old nobles have suffered a heavy blow, the new nobles are surging in their propaganda. Isn't Feodor trying to play a balance? I just want to see if the new nobles, who have just suffered a big loss, can tolerate you.

"Second, secretly expand the number of snake scales, but you can't use the previous methods. You have to attract them with ideals and the future. It's best to choose the young generation of nobles who have been exposed to new things. People who are attracted by ideals are always the hardest to betray."

Chapter 127: The Clouds of Ursus, Early News

The development of events exceeded everyone's expectations.

When the news of the annihilation of the Third Snowfield Army reached Saint Steed Castle, the entire palace was silent. The depressing atmosphere forced the patrolling guards to be careful to lighten their footsteps for fear of angering the Emperor.

No one could have imagined that such a thing would happen. Yesterday, the new nobles were still discussing how to get enough compensation from Duke Baikal.

As a result, I received the news that he was missing today.

Missing on the battlefield is basically equivalent to death.

What was revealed next was the disappearance of several Internal Guards and a shocking case. The Third Army and the Internal Guards secretly reached an agreement with Grand Duke Koschei to raise an infected organization and a Draco, planning to declare war on Lungmen.

When the emperor received the file, his hands were shaking. The upstarts around him were silent and watched closely, fearing that they would offend the emperor and be beheaded to vent his anger.

But what they didn't expect was that the emperor got even more furious when he saw them trembling.

When these people suffered losses, they surrounded him and cried as if their parents had died, and when they were asked to pay money to make up for the empire's military expenses, they were as stingy as if it cost them their life.

Now the critical moment has come, and one by one they have become stone carvings and wooden statues.

It was his beloved minister who was more perceptive and took the lead in sharing his worries.

"Your Majesty, the most urgent task now is to reorganize the army and eliminate the rebels as soon as possible. Otherwise, once this rebellion becomes larger, it is likely to cause more trouble."

As soon as Witt started talking, the others seemed to have found their backbone and kept echoing him with "yes".

But it's not all bad news for Feodor.

The destruction of the Third Army, the dereliction of duty of Grand Duke Baikal and the death of a large number of senior generals dealt an unprecedented blow to the old aristocratic group.

The losses were so severe that they even exceeded the destruction of the Sixth Army during the Great Rebellion.

They had lost two of the Third, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Army groups, and the Fourth Army had secretly sided with them, leaving only the Eighth Army group under their control.

As for the remaining 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th armies, except for the first two who remained neutral and guarded Beiyuan, the remaining 7th Army was loyal to the imperial power.

In other words, now is a good time to centralize power and take back military-industrial enterprises!

But as expected, as soon as he expressed his idea, this group of new nobles who usually wanted to fight with the military nobles changed their previous silence and firmly opposed his policy.

Are you kidding? Now the emperor needs the money of the new nobles to support the army. If we let you take back the businesses and armies of the old nobles, doesn’t that mean we are useless?

When the time comes, whether to confiscate the property or execute the person will be a matter for the emperor to decide, right?

How could they possibly support it!

Fedor felt exhausted by everyone's unanimous opposition, and every policy he wanted to implement faced endless resistance.

We want to carry out industrial mining operations at the mine.

Ask everyone and they have no money.

The mines belong to the old nobles, and the new nobles only need to spend money to buy ready-made source stones. Buying large machinery? Who will pay for this? Whose ore will our equipment dig out in their mines?

Want to improve the status of the infected.

Who will do the mining? Who will be blamed for the social conflicts?

The intricate network of interests made it difficult for him to implement reforms. The cause of the late emperor's death has not been found out yet, and the increasingly tense social contradictions cannot be resolved.

Fyodor looked at the entire Imperial Parliament Hall. Although it was crowded all around, he felt that there was no one around him. All he could see were jackals, tigers, leopards, blood flies and mosquitoes, all wanting to suck the last bit of blood from the giant named Ursus, but no one considered whether the giant could still hold on.

What he couldn't imagine was

The news that the Third Army was defeated by the infected in the snowfield spread to every mobile city in the country in a very short time.

The whole country was in an uproar.

Especially those newspapers exaggerated and pushed all the blame onto the current Emperor, saying that he condoned the gathering of infected people, was not conducive to the capture of the infected, was greedy for pleasure, withheld military pay, resulting in backward equipment and insufficient supplies for the soldiers on the front line, and then compared him with the brave and elite soldiers of the previous emperor's time.

Anyway, Fyodor was made worthless by using a lot of literary techniques.

When information involves one's own interests, the speed of its spread is often astonishing.

By the time the security forces in various places reacted, it was too late to stop it.

This led to a growing rift between Fyodor and the new nobility.

Ordinary people's hatred for the infected reached a new level, and the infected hiding in the edge of the city and southern villages went north one after another. For a while, a storm was brewing in all parts of Ursus.

Chernobog, far to the south, also did not escape the turmoil.

"Natalia, what are you looking at?"

The white-haired Ursus girl whose name was called closed the book in her hand and pushed it onto the desk in a panic. Her two big furry ears seemed to start to get hot.

"No...I didn't see anything."

Natalia's nervous answer gave the noble girl who greeted her some insight.

"Ah... I see. It's no big deal. Take your time. I'm leaving now. The tea party is about to start. You need to hurry."

Reading romance novels is not a rare thing among the circle of aristocratic girls, but due to the sake of face, no one dares to talk about it openly.

".....Um!"

But only Natalia knew that what she was reading was not a novel, but a book that the teacher had given her separately when she left the imperial capital.

The content of the book can be said to be extremely treasonous. Every word reveals the breath of rebellion. Any page thrown outside may be regarded as a rebellious book. If the author is found out, he will definitely be hanged.

When her parents found out that the book was given by the teacher, they never asked what was in the book. They just repeatedly told her to study it carefully. So Natalia didn't dare to throw it away or tell them what was written in it.