The farce ended with the arrest of Kroc.
In Jason Morgan’s eyes, it was just a farce.
The things Kroc said at the committee meeting, Morgan could only describe as utter nonsense.
Could the method of struggle Kroc proposed actually work?
It might work, but there were prerequisites.
Firstly, external support was necessary. Without it, causing trouble out of thin air with no resources at hand, how could that be achieved? To continue the struggle in the absence of the ring leaders, who would be in hiding or on the run, people must be fed and have a way out.
Of course, Kroc wasn’t unprepared for this. During his subsequent interrogation, he admitted to having connections with Blackbird Heavy Industries.
But Jason Morgan sneered at this.
Blackbird Heavy Industries, thousands of miles away, providing supplies to support the resistance movement in the Beiqing Valley Region? It wasn’t just a matter of distance, but also significant geographical barriers. From Beiqing Valley to the western part of the mainland, one had to cross mountain ranges and the Western Desert which were impassable.
The official trade routes had to go through the Central Province, which was under direct control of the Alliance.
Not to mention the operational capability and cost involved, the Alliance wasn’t blind and wouldn’t make it easy.
Moreover, external support was just one of the elements.
The core success or failure of the resistance movement Kroc envisioned hinged on whether it could gain support from the local residents.
If they wanted to hide, they had to be able to remain hidden. Not to mention whether these landlord lords could endure hardship, even if they could, people need food to eat and a place to live.
If under Mr. Gu’s governance, the Alliance was a brutal regime making lives miserable and stirring up widespread discontent; if Kroc and the other manor owners were reincarnated saints who had always treated their tenant farmers very well, ensuring they never wanted for food while they themselves had enough to eat…
If that were the case, their resistance movement would have a chance. With the support of the four million people of the Beiqing Valley Region, they could indeed remain hidden and continuously incite disturbances and provoke the public into resistance.
What about bloody suppression? Killing the leaders would only result in new ones emerging; killing a bunch of civilians would see more rise up. The more they were suppressed, the more resentment and resistance would grow.
But that wasn’t the problem.
The vast number of refugees in the Green Valley Region could hardly survive.
It was the Alliance that set up the Mutual Aid Society, moving the refugees to the Twin Cities in batches; even those not yet relocated were at least provided with food, no matter where it came from, as the civil affairs officials of the Alliance kept making their presence felt; there were treatments for those who fell ill…
The militia was also organized with the help of the Alliance’s military observers, armed with weapons provided by the Alliance to protect the peace.
And while the former manor owners might not have been brutal, they were certainly not particularly benevolent.
Four million people of Green Valley were just waiting for a chance to enter the Twin Cities Region, who would listen to your call for resistance?
Hide? In minutes, someone would report them, and just like that, they might get a reward and become city dwellers.
And without going into distant matters, Kroc dreamt of being the chairman of the Mutual Aid Society, but he couldn’t even control the Society itself.
When Jason Morgan rushed over from the neighboring manor, he indeed arrived alone. When he reached the gate of Crook Manor, it opened by itself. He randomly picked a militia squad leader on guard, asked where Kroc was, and after a moment’s hesitation, he was directed there.
At the entrance of the meeting hall, many armed militiamen stood guard. A group of people was blocking the door hesitantly. Jason Morgan didn’t say a word and just walked inside. The rifles crossed in front of him to block his path, but he simply pushed them aside. And those militiamen didn’t lay a finger on him.
Even after he walked past, he turned his head and called out in the name of the Alliance, and those guarding team leaders looked at each other for a moment and then really started to lead their people into the meeting hall with him.
When Kroc was arrested and dragged out, he still thought that Jason Morgan had premeditated the collusion, infiltrated his manor with his own people, and prepared to strike at that moment.
Heaven and earth are my witness, Jason Morgan really hadn’t planted anyone.
He just heard the news, then he came, and then… all the militia switched sides, what could he do?
Or is it possible that from the beginning to the end, there were never ‘your people,’ that these people were all ‘my people’ from the start?
With that level of competence, to conduct a nonviolent non-cooperation movement and seek negotiation leverage with the Alliance… that’s enough.
Jason Morgan’s assessment of Kroc was that he was a young man who had inherited the wealth of his predecessors, full of ambition but lacking any practical ability, indulging in grandiose but impractical dreams.
Of course, Jason Morgan didn’t kill Kroc either.
House arrest, detention, that was enough. If there was to be guilt in the future, let it be for the Alliance Court to judge; that wasn’t his job.
And in the meeting hall, the other so-called committee members of the Mutual Aid Society, when they saw Kroc being dragged out by what were supposed to be his loyal subordinates, they all woke up from their dreams.
Let’s not talk about those who were quite clear-headed and thought Kroc was delusional. The others who were truly swayed by Kroc’s speech and who didn’t want to lose their wealth and autonomy were now completely silenced.
As for the defection of the militia… no, it couldn’t be called a defection; they had always prioritized obedience to Alliance officials far higher than obedience to the Mutual Aid Society committee members.