Chapter 370: How Can One Change Stilan Without a Loud Voice!

Wu Chang destroyed the source of the great stench, temporarily lifting the great crisis in Grimland and securing a promise from Olivia to support Lan Di in the Prime Minister election.

It is a bit embarrassing to say, but he and Olivia reached an agreement behind the scenes, yet this proposal has not been mentioned to the principal party, Lan Di, yet.

Therefore, at this moment, Wu Chang and Lei Wendun are riding in a carriage toward the residence of the Minister of the Interior, Lan Di, with Lei Wendun still moonlighting as the coachman.

Lei Wendun drove the carriage, muttering under his breath:

"I knew it. Those old land-owning nobles have grown accustomed to getting something for nothing. They are like mosquitoes, sucking the blood and life of the strong to sustain themselves."

It was not until the appearance of the "Industrial Regulation Act" and the "Environmental Protection Act" initiatives that people realized what the land-owning nobles had been plotting all along, and understood why they had been so cooperative when pushing for the anti-Grain Law previously.

Although the old nobles are conservative and dislike change, they are not stupid.

As the center of world industry, Grimland produces countless industrial goods every day, which are transported to all parts of the world via a constant stream of ships at the docks.

The wealth converted through industry and trade is astronomical, having long since exceeded the profits they earned through the Grain Law.

Although they look down on the new nobles in public, calling them nothing but "nouveaux riches" or "workshop owners smelling of machine oil."

But watching the wealth rapidly accumulated by the new nobles, they are secretly so hateful they could almost bite their teeth to pieces.

They know very well that the era belonging to landlords and agriculture is gone forever, and the future must belong to industry and trade.

They are unwilling, and it is impossible for them, to sit and wait for death.

Therefore, from a long time ago, their insistence on the Grain Law and rejection of industry were merely a facade.

Their true scheme is the industrial regulatory power mentioned at this moment.

Just as Lei Wendun said, the old nobles have grown accustomed to being parasites; they do not like innovation because it is full of risks; they also do not like labor and industry because it is not elegant enough.

Before the world entered industrialization, they were great landlords; they never farmed the land themselves, yet they could extract massive wealth from the farmers who did.

After industrialization, factories became the "land" in their eyes.

As long as they obtain the regulatory and defining power over industry, the life and death of industry will be in their hands.

With the power of life and death in their hands, how could they not extract enough benefits?

When that time comes, they will be able to restore their past glory, without needing to participate in industrialization themselves, yet able to directly suck up wealth by virtue of the power in their hands.

And if they succeed this time, they will firmly pin the new nobles beneath them, leaving them unable to turn over.

This is the composure of the old nobles.

Relying on his connections, Lei Wendun has already heard rumors that the Conservative Party is making preparations for two possibilities.

Regardless of whether the Industrial Regulation Act can pass, having reached this point, the acting Prime Minister, Grade, will find it difficult to be confirmed.

The old nobles with influence in the Conservative Party are already prepared to go all out and nominate the Chief Justice as the next Prime Minister.

The Chief Justice is not only a cabinet member but also serves as the Speaker of the Upper Academy, an important official position that combines executive, legislative, and judicial powers.

All along, the Upper Academy has relied on the power of the Chief Justice to barely maintain its dignity, so as not to be completely bypassed by the Lower Academy.

From a partisan perspective, the Chief Justice is the leader of the old nobles.

As long as the Chief Justice becomes Prime Minister, the good days for the conservatives and the old nobles will be here.

Strictly speaking, the members of the Secret Magic Knights are all former land-owning nobles.

But Lei Wendun does not think highly of the land-owning nobles and the conservatives, and his words are mostly sarcastic.

Wu Chang pondered this series of actions by the land-owning nobles and asked:

"If the land-owning nobles' plan succeeds, then looking at the events that have occurred, it seems they are the beneficiaries behind every single one."

First is the death of Prime Minister Luo En; Prime Minister Luo En had great prestige among the conservatives, but he was a traitor to the land.

If Prime Minister Luo En were still alive, the conservatives and the old nobles of the Upper Academy would certainly not be able to twist into a single rope, and the current move to point their swords at the industrial regulatory power would naturally be impossible to realize.

After all, Prime Minister Luo En was a staunch industrialist and would never allow such a thing that restricts industrial development to happen.

After that came the Pine Coal Mine explosion and the Slone Textile Factory incident; these two events successfully provoked the workers' resistance and triggered a great strike.

If not for the success of the great strike, it would be difficult for the Conservative Party to contend with the rising new nobles.

Now that the Grain Law has been abolished, the conflict between the land-owning nobles and the workers has been resolved, and they are again showing a stance of being hostile to factory owners and wanting to fight for the workers' interests, pulling the workers to their side.

Looking back, even the great strike and the passage of the anti-Grain Law were actually beneficial to the Conservative Party.

Not to mention the subsequent great stench and the Steam Assembly, which constantly makes trouble through industry, providing a steady stream of negative cases for industrial regulation.

When investigating a murder case, both police and detectives will investigate the beneficiaries of the murder.

Since the Steam Phantom instance began, the Conservative Party has been winning, simply winning to the point of numbness, so the previously excluded possibility has surfaced again at this moment.

Wu Chang said: "Before, you said the conservatives were already powerless to stop the anti-Grain Law, so the Conservative Party would not assassinate Prime Minister Luo En for this."

"But looking at it now, their motive seems even more sufficient than imagined."

Lei Wendun said:

"To be honest, a detective's intuition tells me that the assassination of Prime Minister Luo En does not look like the Conservative Party's style of doing things."

"But having reached this point, with the suspected targets being eliminated one by one, they have instead become the party most likely to have taken action."

He sighed and said:

"Eliminate all that is impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"If we still cannot lock onto the real culprit by the end, we can only re-examine those old nobles."

While the two were talking, the carriage had already arrived at Lan Di's residence.

During the great stench incident last night, Lan Di happened to be near the Royal Light Weapons Factory, and in order to stop Lan Di from approaching, the Steam Assembly diverted a portion of their manpower to deal with him.

But who is Lan Di? He is a fierce man who, without having studied mysticism at all and even firmly believing that mysticism did not exist, could still rely on his talent to form a spell covering the Moonlight Sanitarium, possessing the ability of a B-rank instance boss on the verge of losing control.

Even though Wu Chang has experienced various high-difficulty planes, in terms of talent in the transcendent field, only his brother-in-law He Yi can compete with him.

The Lan Di of the Steam Phantom instance has fully accepted the existence of the transcendent and, with Zhu Li's help, has systematically learned and mastered transcendent power.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current Lan Di is one of the pinnacles of combat power among the plane's natives.

The Steam Assembly members who went to intercept Lan Di were all killed by him, including two official councilors, four associate councilors, and two foreign transcendents, that is, players.

Having achieved such a brilliant record, the injury Lan Di received was only a slight fracture of his forearm.

After treatment with the Alchemy Society's transcendent potion, he will recover in three to five days.

When Wu Chang and Lei Wendun arrived at Lan Di's residence, Lan Di was practicing swordsmanship with a two-handed greatsword of a normal human model in one hand.

It could be seen that he really did not suffer any injuries in last night's battle.

Seeing the two appear, Lan Di seemed very happy; he had already learned from Olivia that the great stench last night could be stopped all thanks to Wu Chang and the Secret Magic Knights.

"Maintaining the safety of Grimland and even the entire country should have been my duty as Minister of the Interior, but in last night's crisis, I was unable to do anything."

"I failed to protect the light weapons factory, nor could I eliminate the great stench; it was thanks to your intervention that the crisis did not expand further."

Lan Di's words were very sincere and pure; Wu Chang could feel that Lan Di truly believed yesterday was his dereliction of duty and was annoyed by it.

But it was precisely this purity that made Wu Chang realize that Olivia only told Lan Di about the great stench and did not mention her agreement with Wu Chang.

Tsk, the Queen is worthy of being the Queen; she looks like she has no defenses, but in reality, she doesn't get her hands on such troublesome matters at all.

Since Olivia failed to provide an assist, Wu Chang could only take the initiative to explain his purpose.

He stated that he believed no one was more suitable to be Prime Minister than Lan Di at this time in Stilan, and wanted Lan Di to take advantage of the current chaos in Stilan to run for the position of Prime Minister. Hearing Wu Chang's proposal, Lan Di immediately refused and mocked himself:

"A dangerous organization like the Steam Assembly could actually grow under my nose, and twice at that; I can't even do my job as Minister of the Interior well, so how could I do well as Prime Minister?"

Wu Chang shook his head and said: "That is incorrect."

"Lan Di, there is a question I have wanted to ask you for a long time: why did you give up Grimland after graduating from university and return to Baishi Town to be a sanitarium director?"

A look of reminiscence appeared in Lan Di's eyes, and he said slowly:

"I am the lord of Baishi Town and have an obligation to build my territory well. I saw that because of my father's poor management, the residents of Baishi Town lived in depression, and I wanted to change all this through advanced ideas and technology, which is why I came to Grimland to study."

"Returning to Baishi Town, I found that the townspeople were trapped in the torment of paranoia; compared to a lord, they needed a doctor to cure them more, so I became the doctor they needed."

Wu Chang continued to ask: "Then why did you leave Baishi Town and take the post of Minister of the Interior?"

Lan Di sighed and said: "Because with your and Zhu Li's help, I discovered that everything Baishi Town encountered was a conspiracy from the Church of Serenity."

"Not just Baishi Town, their conspiracy covers all of Stilan; if I don't stop them, more places will become like the former Baishi Town, and I don't want to see what happened in Baishi Town repeat itself."

"Zhu Li told me that one person's power is limited; no matter how strong I am, I can only ensure the safety of one town or one city; only by becoming the Minister of the Interior can I fight against the entire Church of Serenity."

Wu Chang said: "I can feel that in every period, you have been doing your best to make the people around you live better."

"But having come to Grimland and served as Minister of the Interior for a few years, do you now believe that without the Church of Serenity and without the Steam Assembly, people's lives would become better?"

Lan Di frowned and did not speak.

Wu Chang continued to press: "As Minister of the Interior, whether you are willing or not, you have seen Prime Minister Luo En suppressing the workers' movement."

"Those workers were starving because of the Grain Law, doing the heaviest physical labor, yet could only eat two meals a day; is this because of the Church of Serenity's conspiracy?"

Lan Di opened his mouth but could not speak.

Wu Chang continued: "Children born in bottom-tier families have to enter mines with their parents at five, and face the risk of rotting faces or even death in match factories at six or seven; orphans in slums even have to enter poorhouses, known as prisons for the poor, just to live a few more days."

"Even if you do a good job as Minister of the Interior and stop the Church of Serenity and the Steam Assembly, can you stop these things from happening?"

In order to get Lan Di to cooperate with him, Wu Chang prepared to use moral kidnapping on him.

Lan Di is the first leader of the Secret Magic Knights and a descendant of Old Anderson, and Old Anderson's moral level was such that when holding the Holy Sword of the Lake, the light of the holy sword could make the entire St. George's Church as bright as day.

If the Holy Sword of the Lake is a symbol of nobility, honor, and perfection, then Old Anderson is the most perfect template for the spirit of chivalry.

As a descendant of Old Anderson, although Lan Di's family sealed their transcendent power, they inherited Old Anderson's moral cleanliness and carried out the pure spirit of chivalry.

It was precisely this strong sense of justice and the mission to help the weak that kept Lan Di from abandoning the townspeople and leaving, even when he was trapped in the Moonlight Sanitarium.

Such a guy is the most suitable for moral kidnapping.

Wu Chang's words made Lan Di become dejected, and he said helplessly: "Even Prime Minister Luo En and Her Majesty Olivia cannot solve this problem; what can I do?"

Wu Chang waved his hand and said: "What you can do is not important; whether you want to solve all this is what's important."

He stated the situation he and Lei Wendun had inferred when they arrived, only when facing Lan Di, he directly assumed the conservatives were the suspects in the assassination of the Prime Minister.

"Lan Di, whether it is the liberals or the conservatives, the old nobles or the new nobles, they only treat the bottom-tier people as tools—tools for extracting wealth or partisan strife; no one truly cares about their future."

"So, answer me now: do you want to change everything you see?"

Landi hesitated for a moment and said, "I want to change all of this."

Wu Chang pretended not to hear clearly and said, "Mr. Landi, what did you just say?"

This time, Landi did not hesitate and said, "I want to change all of this."

Wu Chang shook his head and said, "If that is the only volume you have, you won't be able to show your determination."

This time, Landi shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice venting his unwillingness, "I want to change all of this!"

According to the original procedure, Wu Chang should have added another line: Didn't you eat? You want to change everything with such a small voice?

But Landi's volume was truly too loud, buzzing in his head, and Lei Wendun, who was on the side, was even temporarily deafened, digging at his ears with his fingers.

Seeing this, Wu Chang could only shout along, "Good, very spirited!"

"But determination alone is useless. Zhu Li is right; if you want to do something, you must first obtain the power that matches it."

"Only by becoming Prime Minister can you possess the power to change all of this."

Speaking of running for Prime Minister, Landi's emotions cooled somewhat, and he said:

"You have always been in the New World and don't understand Stilander. Running for Prime Minister isn't that easy, I..."

Wu Chang interrupted, "Right now, the Ziyou Party and the Conservative Party are locked in a struggle. Under the maneuvers of the Conservative Party, your biggest competitor, Acting Prime Minister Glad, has already declared failure in advance."

"The only competitors standing in front of you are the Minister of Foreign Affairs among the three ministers, and the Chief Justice supported by the conservatives."

"Both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Chief Justice lean toward the conservatives. In order not to be completely overwhelmed by the conservatives, after Glad's hope of election is gone, a large portion of the Ziyou Party will choose to support you."

"Not only that, I have also reached an agreement with Her Majesty Olivia. I used the merit of stopping the Great Stench to exchange for Her Majesty's support for your inauguration as Prime Minister."

Landi was stunned after hearing this, not knowing how to respond, "Why did you..."

Wu Chang said with a serious expression, "Because I believe that only you can change Stilander. Landi, answer me now, are you willing to run for Prime Minister?"

Seeing Wu Chang recognize him so much and go to such lengths, Landi was filled with emotion and immediately said:

"I am willing to run for Prime Minister!"

Wu Chang said with satisfaction, "Very good, say it all together: are you willing to run for Prime Minister, and do you want to change all of this?"

Landi shouted, "I am willing to run for Prime Minister! I am willing to change all of this!"

Wu Chang said, "Very good, one more time, with determination!"

Wu Chang and Landi were shouting enthusiastically, while Lei Wendun, watching this scene that resembled a pyramid scheme, covered his ears and questioned his life.

In his impression, Landi had always been a serious and steady person; he had never seen Landi as excited and agitated as he was today.

Lei Wendun grimaced; he had reason to suspect whether Wu Chang had asked that magical pharmacist who could cure the Great Stench to concoct some kind of mind-controlling potion.

He covered his ears and backed out of the room.

Regardless of what medicine Wu Chang gave Landi, if he didn't leave now, he would have to find that God's Tongue to get a prescription to treat his ears.

While Wu Chang was building confidence for Landi and increasing his obsession with running for office, the Conservative Party, as Landi's biggest rival, was not idle either.

In a low-key vacation manor in the Grime Lanxi District, Nestor was sitting in the study, waiting for the upcoming meeting.

The owner of the manor where he was staying was Marquis Robert Gaskow, and Marquis Gaskow had another identity: the current Chief Justice of Stilander.

Of course, as the Chief Justice and the most prominent candidate for Prime Minister at the moment, Gaskow himself would certainly not risk meeting with Nestor.

As the study door pushed open, Earl Brook, a core figure of the Conservative Party who had served as the Minister of Colonial Affairs, walked into the room.

Brook looked at Nestor with a smile and said, "Mr. Nestor, you have done very well; you have not let down Mr. Gaskow's consistent funding of you."

"But now is not the time to rest. You must incite another major strike to force Glad to make a choice."

Nestor was silent for a moment. He took a deep breath and then said:

"No, we have already done enough for you. Unless you first recognize the requests of the Charter Movement, we will not help you do anything."

(End of chapter)