Chapter 1046: Defeat

Police in the concession kept going out, driving those ordinary people who came in from the outside out.

Some conflict incidents also occurred. Some people were unwilling to leave here. After all, those anti-government armed forces didn't know when they could fight to Zhuolan. For them, the entire city was becoming more and more dangerous now.

They didn't know whether they would get some guarantees in the concession, in terms of safety, and in other aspects, but this was already the only way they could think of.

Ships kept leaving the port in Zhuolan, but not everyone could get on the ship leaving here, and finally they could only cast their eyes here.

Now these police officers, their compatriots, wanted to drive them out of here. How could they accept such a result?

Conflict, just like this happened.

First, several ordinary Lapa people refused to leave the open space they were "living" in temporarily, and also refused to leave the concession, and then had a conflict with the police.

They thought the police didn't dare to do anything to them. After all, the federal cultural output in Lapa was considered quite successful, making them mistakenly think that here, in the concession, it would be like the Federation.

Everything paid attention to human rights, respect for freedom and personal will.

The police directly took out police batons to beat them. They couldn't bear such attacks and started to resist, finally ending this farce with a police officer pulling out a gun and shooting.

When the first police officer used a pistol and shot, and didn't receive any punishment, this meant that the police station as well as Lanse and the concession management system were encouraging such behavior.

Sometimes people are very stupid, but sometimes, people are very smart.

Soon the riots and chaos in the concession were controlled, a large number of people were cleared out, and the concession returned to the appearance people perceived of it.

Those people walking on the streets of the concession, possessing identity proof, confirming that they were residents in the concession, just like those old men, would slightly raise their chins when walking.

In their hearts, they had already detached from the bottom of society and were in a status between the bottom and middle of society. Although it wasn't considered middle, at least it wasn't the bottom.

This kind of psychological change made them even more fanatical about everything in the concession, including Lanse, as well as the Federation and the federal government.

This is a very morbid psychological change. A victim will fanatically lean toward the perpetrator, which sounds like the awakening of an old M.

But this is reality. These people living in the concession are proud of being "colonized," and still feel that they are a level higher than other people in the local area who haven't been colonized. This is very strange, but not strange.

After all, people are not water. Water will flow to low places, but people will only walk to high places.

This is actually a kind of sorrow, Lapa's sorrow, the sorrow of the Lapa people.

A large number of Lapa middle class, privileged class, were waiting to handle the resident status in the concession at the "New Jincheng Resident Registration Office."

Before, they had mocked those residents who registered personal information here, those at the very bottom of society.

They used "livestock stamped with steel" to describe those people. They felt that this behavior of registering personal information was actually equivalent to firmly controlling a person here, completely losing freedom.

But now, they were actively putting shackles on their own heads, because of the war.

For several days in a row, Lanse "took in" quite a few such people. They transformed and also became residents of the concession, but they were a bit different from those ordinary residents.

They needed to make contributions to the concession. These people couldn't engage in the lowest-level labor in the factory, so they had to invest here.

Whether opening a shop or opening a factory, in short, they must hire workers, otherwise they would eventually be kicked out.

Better and better environment and more and more job opportunities, as well as its safety, here was becoming a place more people yearned for.

Early February, the morning of the third or fourth, fog shrouded the entire Zhuolan.

Two people in a hurry were advancing from the city center of Zhuolan toward the concession.

They had been waiting in line to join the concession. Too many people applied every day, plus some of Lanse's regulations, either they could play some role in the construction of the concession, or they really had money in their hands and could invest in the concession, otherwise others could only wait in

No one knows when the insurgent army outside the city will strike, so those with even a little ability are anxiously waiting for news.

Early in the morning, these two neighbors planned to go together for an interview; as long as they passed the interview, they could move into the concession area.

The two of them could be considered Lapa's middle class, living on the edge of the city center with some money in their hands.

Because they had things on their minds, the two didn't talk much along the way, and the content of their conversation was mainly about whether Zhuolan could hold out and whether the insurgent army would cause harm to this place.

They also talked about Diego.

"It's been a while since Diego has appeared, you know?"

"Some people say he has actually already escaped!"

The person speaking had his hands in his pockets, head bowed, as the cold wind blew in and poured into his clothes from his neck, making him feel a bone-chilling cold.

A damp cold that felt like it stuck to you once it blew in, impossible to shake off.

The person beside him gave a "hmm," "I've heard that theory too, but I don't think it's true."

"Do you think the Federalists, and those big shots, would let Diego escape?"

"He is a very ideal tool. From my point of view, he will be the full stop to this war game and will definitely appear when he is needed."

"Compared to that, I'm more worried about today's interview."

"I only have a little over a thousand dollars now. If they expect me to invest, I really don't know what this money can do."

A little over a thousand dollars, Federal Sol, is actually not a small fortune here, but just as he feared, if this money were used for investment, it really wouldn't be enough.

He could only pin his hopes on his professional skills to win the favor of the interviewer.

While they were talking, some dense footsteps suddenly came. As they walked, they turned their heads to look in the direction the footsteps were coming from. Soon, they saw a group of soldiers wearing government army uniforms running toward them.

They froze in place, subconsciously standing still. They thought these soldiers might just be passing by, but then they realized they had guessed wrong.

Several soldiers surrounded them and raised the weapons in their hands, "Take out the valuable things on you!" An old soldier who looked thirty-four or thirty-five with a wrinkled face reached out to pull at their coats and stuck his hands into their pockets.

Both of them were somewhat unable to handle such a sudden situation and just stood there foolishly.

Until they saw the things they were carrying being searched out by these soldiers and then stuffed into their own pockets.

"That's my...", one of them reacted. It wasn't just the things they were carrying that were taken—money or other things—but also some of their supporting documents used to apply for resident status within the concession.

The money was gone, he didn't care; that was all loose change, not worth much, but the supporting documents for the application could not be lost.

He tried to reach out to take them back, explaining the situation as he did so, "You can take the money, but please return these documents to me..."

But the answer he got was the old soldier taking a step back, then drawing a weapon from his holster and firing two shots into his stomach.

His companion was scared silly, holding his hands high, looking at these government soldiers, unable to understand at all what had happened.

Soon, these people left after stripping them of everything they had, running toward the direction of the city center.

It was also at this moment that more soldiers began to run out of the fog, and the guy still standing realized what had happened.

His mouth slowly opened wide, unable to close, and his eyes were filled with fear!

The government army, defeated!

Large numbers of routed soldiers appeared around Zhuolan, and some had already begun to rush into the city.

The person in charge of reconnaissance notified Lanse immediately. Afterward, Lanse obtained confirmed news through phone calls and telegrams: the Lavilla family's last military force had completely collapsed.

They could no longer block the advance of the anti-government armed forces and began to flee in droves, and the only direction they could flee was toward Zhuolan.

Lanse had people guard the several main streets for entering and exiting while keeping an eye on the movements of these routed soldiers and the movements of the anti-government forces' advance.

Among the anti-government forces—oh no, they should be called the "Insurgent Army" now; many people have changed their name for them.

In front of the Insurgent Army, these government soldiers were just a pile of loose sand, but once in the city, in front of ordinary people, they turned into hungry wolves.

Starting from a little after six in the morning, the sound of gunfire had not stopped intermittently, and news kept pouring in.

The routed soldiers attacked the city center area, looted a large amount of goods from the city center, and killed quite a few people.

Now this group of routed soldiers had completely lost control; they were like a swarm of locusts, leaving a mess wherever they passed.

Shops were looted, those who looked like wealthy people would have everything on them taken, and if anyone was unwilling to cooperate with their looting, they would be killed on the spot.

Some didn't even care if you would cooperate; they would just walk up and fire a few shots, laying people down first, then looting the bodies.

At eight o'clock, new news came in that some routed soldiers had occupied the port, and they were requisitioning all the ships docked at the port, attempting to leave here by boat.

They had already developed a physiological fear of those insurgent forces, and every ship was packed with defeated government soldiers, frantically trying to leave this terrible place.

The city also became even more chaotic, with gunfire everywhere, including Lanse's territory, where some routed soldiers attempted to storm in.

In their perception, this place was also very prosperous and wealthy.

The concept that Federalists are very rich is deeply rooted in people's hearts. The propaganda of the past two years not only culturally made the locals start to lean toward the Federation but also publicized some of the ordinary social conditions of the Federation here.

Like the fact that the average Federal wage is nearly sixty Federal Sol, which to them is a possibility.

They couldn't earn that much money in a year even without eating or drinking; it might take two or three years, so "Federalists are very rich" has become an inherent label for Federalists in their minds.

Now these people have completely lost control; what they want to do is grab a haul and then take a boat to leave here.

So naturally, the wealthy city center and this place became their primary choices.

When a large group of routed soldiers rushed toward the bridge leading to the concession with weapons in hand, the sudden appearance of three armored vehicles made them pause for a moment.

Just as they stopped their steps and began to realize something was wrong, the machine guns on the armored vehicles began to spray bullets.

The storm formed by the bullets tore these people into pieces in an instant; they turned and ran, howling and crying.

But how could a human body outrun the firing rate of bullets?

Soon, only corpses remained on the street, along with the lingering gunpowder smoke.

The three armored vehicles arrived at the side of the pile of corpses. Hiram stepped out of an armored vehicle carrying a gun. He looked down at a soldier who hadn't breathed his last yet, raised his gun, and fired machine-gun rounds directly at his head.

The bullets shattered the soldier's head in an instant, looking somewhat nauseating, but these were just small scenes for Hiram.

He looked around, and after confirming no one was still alive, he issued an order.

"Hang them up with ropes, on the streetlights and buildings on both sides..."

Not long after, both sides of the road were filled with the hanging corpses of the dead routed soldiers, swaying constantly with the wind, or slapping against the walls.

The same scene also happened in other places. The armored vehicles Lanse brought here played a huge role. Perhaps they couldn't do much on the front line of the battlefield, but inside the city, on the roads, they were great killing machines!

Those routed soldiers soon realized that this was not a good place; they began to actively avoid it, and even if they passed by the surroundings, they would be extra careful.

This also made those people inside the concession feel a deep sense of security.

At a little after eleven in the morning, after the routed soldiers had been looting for about five hours, the Lavilla family members returned to Zhuolan with some soldiers they had gathered. While arranging for people to build defensive fortifications, they tried to find Diego.

It was just a pity that Diego was already gone. At the same time, as it approached one o'clock, the Insurgent Army finally "surrounded" the entire Zhuolan.

Actually, saying they surrounded it isn't quite correct; they didn't surround Zhuolan, but they controlled all other roads leaving here except for the waterways. The atmosphere in the entire city became terrible in an instant.

More people, carrying their property and their families, tried to rush into the concession. Now, only that place could give them a tiny bit of security.