Chapter 74 Within the whirlpool
“You damn vampire! There is no such thing as relief rations!”
The speaker was an unshaven man with a weathered face, but he was better than his peers. A much stronger man.
Soshyan immediately noticed the badge on the man's collar. Although it was heavily covered in stains, it could still be distinguished that it was the badge of the Astra Militarum.
The tattered clothes this man was wearing could also be vaguely seen as the training uniforms of the Astra Militarum.
Seeing this man jumping out, West raised his eyebrows, with a look of disdain on his face.
"Lieutenant Ventry Kos, as a retired officer of the Astra Militarum, you really give face to the Minister of Military Affairs."
"Bah!"
This former star The Lieutenant of the Imperial Army suddenly spat at West, with no trace of fear on his face.
"What you said is bullshit! They may be cowardly, stingy, or cunning, but who made them become like this?"
He pointed at West and shouted sternly:
"It's you! It's you landowners and grain merchants!"
A look that was almost crying appeared on the man's gray face. With a scowl on his face, every word he spoke was through gritted teeth.
“If you can’t harvest enough food, burn down the houses! Force them to do hard labor and labor, and kill people if they disobey! You also open casinos privately to trick the homesteaders into gambling, and wait until they lose all their money. Just lend money and take away their fields! You also raise prices during natural disasters,
and use usury to increase the price of farm equipment to dozens of times the purchase price!”
While cursing angrily, the man's eyes widened, his teeth clenched, and his words were almost squeezed out from between his teeth.
"What do you tell them to do! What should they do!!"
As he said that, the man sat down on the ground, lowered his head, let out a suppressed cry, and punched hard with his fists Hitting the ground even produced blood marks.
“Damn it! Damn it!”
Suddenly, a shadow enveloped him. The man looked up and found a giant in silver-gray armor standing in front of him. There are thunderclouds all over the sky, bringing a terrible aura of destruction.
"You just said that there are no relief rations?"
"My lord! My lord! There is some! They are all greedy."
"Shut up!"
Soshyan's sullen voice made West immediately shut his mouth and tremble with fear.
Then he turned to the man on the ground.
"Tell me."
"No! I swear on my life! What they distributed was definitely not relief rations, but a small amount of grains and native plants wrapped in plaster! Sir, the natives of this world Most of the plants are poisonous, and people will die if they eat too much! They are not trying to save people at all when they send them out! "
The man is curled up! At Soshyan's feet, there were still tears on his face.
"My wife and daughter... all died from eating those things!"
"Nonsense! You are all talking nonsense! You obviously ate so much food! But you didn't eat anything!"
West was still defending himself.
"Don't try to deceive the angels with your pity! You are rebels! You are rebels who deserve to be killed! You have attacked the empire's tax authorities. This is an ironclad fact!"
" I, I..."
The old man who led the team suddenly stood up unsteadily, and then whipped out a knife from his cane.
In an instant, the Space Marines all reached for their weapons, and the guards also pointed their guns at them.
But no one expected that the old man would stab the knife into his abdomen, and then pull it to the right with a roar.
“You——”
Soshiyang was also stunned. He saw thick blood overflowing from the huge tear in the old man’s abdomen, and the strong smell of blood filled the air. It floated over the helmet and into his nose. "S-Sir!"
The old man's legs were trembling, but he gritted his teeth and held on. He put his hand into his abdomen and suddenly pulled out a piece of intestine.
From the blue veins popping up on his forehead, you can imagine the level of pain he was enduring, but he actually held it back, holding his intestines with his hands full of blood, and moved towards Soshiyang's Directions sent.
"Look, there is absolutely not...a grain of food!"
After saying that, the old man fell backwards, and those people screamed and hurried to support him. .
The old man's eyes widened, and his face covered with wrinkles and dirt showed a deep sadness. After the last two rises and falls in his chest, he became motionless.
"He...why."
Such a tragic scene deeply shocked Soshiyang, even more shocking than the bloody flesh and blood and the rain of bullets on the battlefield.
Why would a mortal who should be extremely fragile and of little value do this in his mind?
What pushed him to this point?
Soshiyang turned his head and looked at the landlord who shrank his head and looked as pale as a corpse. He slowly clenched his hand armor...
"You should collect his body."
Suddenly, Sol, who had never spoken a word, stood up and pointed at the dead old man.
“We have learned about your experience and will report it all to the Sector Governor. The Empire will give you a fair judgment. Before that...as long as you put down your weapons, we swear by our honor that we will give you a fair judgment. Guarantee your life safety before the empire’s trial comes.”
The retired lieutenant of the Astra Militarum understood Thor’s words and nodded after being silent for less than ten seconds.
Then Saul turned to West and said:
"Once they lay down their weapons, they are no longer militants. If you don't trust them entering the city, you can resettle them outside the city and provide them with clean water and food. Even if they are really guilty, they must be handed over to the Imperial Ministry of Justice for trial. , not you."
"Of course, of course!"
West nodded hurriedly.
“But——”
Soshiyan wanted to say something else, but Thor’s whisper reached his ears through the helmet’s communicator.
"We don't have time to struggle in the moral whirlpool, Soshyan."
He could only swallow the words in his throat.
Not long after the rebels who entered the city carried the old man's body back to the jungle, a large number of rebellious serfs and farmers walked out of this natural bunker and came to the designated resettlement area outside the city with weapons held high.
After a brief inspection by the guards, their weapons were confiscated and they were then able to go to the makeshift shack to receive food and clean water.
While all this was happening, Soshyan and his party had already left the city, heading to the abandoned mine under the leadership of the steward sent by West.
Before setting off, Soshyan once asked Sol.
“Why don’t you let me punish him.”
He, of course, refers to West.
Soshyan has been able to confirm that these landlords are definitely the real driving force behind this rebellion.
But in the face of the angry Soshiyang, Saul's answer was.
"Soshiyan, have you been to the lower deck of the Starfire?"
The young chapter leader was stunned for a moment, and he suddenly realized that he had never set foot in other areas of the battleship beneath him.
"No."
Faced with Soshiyang's frankness, Sol had a smile on his face at that time. This smile was like an adult watching a child's childish behavior.
“You must go and see it, that is the real hell.”
(End of this chapter)