[Stormwind City, his greatest work, is splendid and majestic. It is the most advanced and prosperous city in history. The faces of pedestrians on the street are filled with happiness. They sit on stone benches and admire the beautiful fountains. They walk on the cobblestone streets and look up at the majestic cathedral. But they never thought that each brick and tile would... For every step and rivet, someone did the heavy lifting of construction.
... Around him, his former co-workers were poor, tired, hungry, and homeless. The authorities did not want to pay a penny, and they accused the workers of plotting a rebellion and drove them all to the remote wilderness on the border of the kingdom.
When someone accuses you of doing something, the best way is not to defend it, but to actually do it.
Now everyone is furious, waiting for his order. They all have gear tattoos on their bodies. Stormwind is a machine where the nobles and wealthy people give orders, but the machine cannot run without gears.
However, he disagreed. He always believed that problems could be solved through peaceful means. They are not warriors, they are craftsmen, and it is their duty to bring happiness to this kingdom and its people. He tried his best to suppress the anger of his companions. If it weren't for him, those gears would have turned into sharp blades of revenge, straddling the necks of nobles and priests.
Under his leadership, the workers who were driven out of Stormwind City did not choose to fight violence with violence, but actively joined the ranks of the western pioneers. They used the knowledge and skills of craftsmen to help residents draw drawings, design mine tunnels, build houses, and manufacture harvesting robots. With their help and personal participation, in just a few years, towns, farms, and mines were established one after another, and the West became increasingly prosperous. prosperity;
This group of knowledgeable, powerful, and highly disciplined craftsmen has received heartfelt support and love from the residents. They became the de facto rulers of the west. The laws and official systems of the kingdom were not feasible in this vast land. The people only recognized the plans and instructions of those with gears tattooed on their bodies.
On this day, when the Kingdom suddenly expressed its willingness to settle the project debt and issued an invitation to negotiate, he thought that the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
His companions all advised him that this was an obvious trap. It is impossible for those rich people who greedily protect every bit of wealth like evil dragons to suddenly change their temperament and have their conscience discovered. This is just a pretense, to trick the leader of the Brotherhood into catching turtles in a urn. If he is fooled, there will be no return.
But in the end he went anyway, not because he naively believed it, but because he wanted to personally convey the craftsmen's thoughts to the people of Stormwind and to all the people who benefited from their works:
Even if they suffer all kinds of injustice, the craftsmen still love this country and its people. They abided by the law from beginning to end and made no mistakes. As long as those in power make even the slightest concession and allow them to get the minimum remuneration to live, they are willing to continue to contribute to the construction of this country.
Then he failed.
…
He underestimated the greed, arrogance, short-sightedness and stupidity of those with vested interests. They won't think about things longer than tomorrow at all, and will only cling to the little profit in front of them. Even if they themselves will be killed when the house collapses, they will first remove the main beams of the house in exchange for money to line their own pockets;
He also overestimated the compassion and warmth of the people of Stormwind. The people living in this city are not selfish or indifferent, but the help they give to the builders is at most limited to sympathy and solidarity. The royal family and the church control the power and the mouthpiece of public opinion. Most people are busy with their lives and can easily succumb to power and be deceived and divided. Amid all kinds of confusing news, it is difficult for people to empathize with a group of people who are not close friends and take risks to help each other.
In short, not only did he get nothing, he was completely defeated, and he could not successfully embark on the return journey - the kingdom would not let the big fish that took the bait return to the sea so easily.
Because there was never a single flaw in the resume of the craftsman leader, he was eventually imprisoned for offending the queen.
What is ridiculous is that the so-called offense refers to the fact that when the queen met with the leader of the craftsmen on behalf of the royal family, she secretly put forward a condition: as long as he agreed not to pursue the payment of the project funds, and signed the contracts with the seals of the kingdom and the Church of Light. The IOU was secretly given to the kingdom, and he was promised a large sum of money and a title. After hearing this, he became furious, flatly refused, and walked away.
——Who is being shameless and who is offended? What a big joke.
He was imprisoned in a heavily guarded and extremely strong underwater prison. Time passed day by day and month by month; he never gave in.
That night, a familiar figure came to the iron window;
"Don't be stupid, Edwin, accept the title of Viscount and the official position, take the money, and forget about the Brotherhood. Just like me."
In the past few months, the royal family has sent envoys to him non-stop, trying to persuade him to change his mind. These people may be arrogant or sincere, or coercive or tempting, but they are all equally stupid and cannot touch him in the slightest. However, the person who appeared in front of him at this time caused a wave of emotion in his heart.
This was his former deputy, one of his most capable generals, and his playmate since childhood. When a few like-minded young people left their hometown on the shores of Shibei Lake with tools and drawings on their backs, no one expected that the name of the Brotherhood of Craftsmen would be resounding throughout the country in the future. Nowadays, most of the original partners are no longer alive, leaving only two people behind bars.
Looking at the familiar face, he unconsciously hummed a tune deep in his memory;
"... Do you still remember, Barons, this is a folk song in my hometown, "Brothers of Masonry". I like these two lines the most, 'No matter where you go, no matter how prosperous and wealthy you are, don't forget the place where you grew up. place, don’t forget your dear brother; no matter you encounter rough waves, no matter you are in danger, your brother will be by your side and be your loyal arm...'"
The man grabbed the bars and said eagerly, "You don't understand! Edwin, your persistence is meaningless. They will... tomorrow..." As he said that, the man looked around and lowered his voice and said, "Tomorrow... they will be executed is you."
He was stunned, "Why, I negotiated peacefully on behalf of the workers. We have not committed even the slightest crime."
"You still don't understand that standing up for justice is the biggest sin. That's all I can say, take care, Edwin." With that, the other party hurried away and walked away along the passage.
…
He sat there for a long time, motionless. I don't know how long time passed. For him, day and night were the same, there was no light.
This underwater prison is so strong that no prisoner has escaped alive since it was built.
However, in his eyes, every brick, every mechanism, and every screw was so familiar; he and his brothers worked hard and spent countless days and nights to build it with their own hands.
No one knows what happened that night, and by the time the guards noticed, he had disappeared from the cage.
From the opened door locks, lifted manhole covers, and destroyed hidden walls, we can roughly judge the movement trajectory of the craftsman leader;
He easily opened the lock on the cell door, walked out of the passage along the blind spot of the surveillance hole, removed the rivets and opened the well, dived under the water, and reached an underwater fence.
This heavy cast iron fence weighs a thousand kilograms and is immovable. It has blocked at least five escapees and caused them to suffocate to death here. However, the leader of the craftsmen did not touch the iron bars. Instead, he pulled out the load-bearing bricks on the wall. After a while, the water flow destroyed the thin wall on its own. Then he surfaced, crawled through the intricate ventilation ducts, and walked out along the sewer he built with his own hands.
Outside the city, under the waterfall by Mingjing Lake, he should have taken one last look at his beloved city from a distance, and then left silently.
Since then, the once suave and starry-eyed leader of the Brotherhood has been gone. In his place came a name that would make the kingdom and the church fearful, Van Cleef of Defias. 】
Auster was reading a book, and Marissa ran to the bed, staring at him with a playful smile and saying nothing.
Oster thought of something and asked Marissa where was her money? The girl pretended to be stupid and said that she had forgotten it at first, but later said that it had been used for construction by the beggar gang;
"A manly man, don't worry about that little money! As compensation, I will let you be one of the candidates for my future husband."
Auster couldn't laugh or cry. How many future husbands are there among the candidates? After asking, Marissa didn't answer. She got out of bed, shook a shiny object in her hand and said, "And this, just treat it as a betrothal gift paid in advance."
Oster took a look and saw that it was the gold coin with a special symbol that the weird mage had given him before. Because it was not legal tender and could not be spent and the bank would not accept it, he always carried it in his close-fitting clothes as an amulet;
As a result, Marissa walked along quietly without noticing at all. This kid is really talented in this area, no wonder he can be the leader of the hall.
Marisa said triumphantly, "Thank me, the other candidates for husband-in-law gave me a whole car's worth of treasure." Then she took the gold coins and ran away.
