Shadow Empire

Chapter 918: Food, Easy to Take, Bad to Eat, and Showdown
It only takes three days to travel from the Czech Republic to Lapa, running from north to south.

In recent years, the Czech Republic has been building railways. Not only are they building them in their own country, they are also actively extending the railway network to other countries.

As long as there is no strong opposition, they will incorporate it into their own railway network system.

Some people say that they did this with bad intentions. Once the railway is open, their army will be able to reach any place on the entire land along the railway in a very short time.

But some people don't care about it, especially some very poor countries who have nothing to lose.

On the contrary, they would rather the Czech Republic invade them, so that they would surrender voluntarily from top to bottom, and perhaps their lives would be better than now.

There were fewer people who refused their request to build railways, and whoever stood up to refuse would seem to be standing against everyone, so the railway networks of the eleven countries were connected together.

The source is the "Central Station" of the Czech Republic, a huge starting point that is even larger than some federal stations.

Such a large project actually did not cost much money, because the value of human beings is very cheap here.

The core and foundation of "value" is actually people.

There are many people and they are cheap, so the construction cost is naturally not high.

This is why all the projects that seem huge to the federal people can be completed in this backward place.

As long as food and lodging are provided, and a little money is given every month, equivalent to five federal soles in the local currency, people will rush to do the job, and some will even do it for free.

The entire Yalan region has a population of over 100 million. There is a lack of everything here except people.

Some people don't want to do it, but some people are eager to do it.

Railways and work related to railways also became one of the most decent jobs in the entire Yalan region for a period of time.

No matter whether they are section chiefs or ordinary railway workers, as long as they put on their uniforms, even if they are the gray and blue coarse cloth uniforms of railway workers, they will give people a very different feeling.

Not to mention the conductor who drives the train.

After washing up, the conductor came to the cab, where the operator was already waiting for him.

"Good morning."

The operators in the cab all bowed and saluted, "Good morning, sir."

"Are you ready, boys?" the conductor came to his seat and sat down.

In fact, there is no actual driving work for this kind of steam locomotive. It is not like a car or a horse-drawn carriage, which requires correcting the direction and requires some skill.

The train driver basically does one thing: decide the speed, make it run faster, or just stop it.

In addition, occasionally blowing the whistle is also one of their jobs, but they can do it or not.

Several operators said they were ready, and the conductor blew the whistle. The whistle sounded very loud, but he could still tell that it was not really "loud".

The boiler wasn't fully fired up yet, so the pressure wasn't high enough, but it was enough.

With the sound of the whistle, the train began to move slowly.

It was slow at first—

“Huff…chi”

It can't even keep up with the walking speed of pedestrians.

But as the boiler opened more air ducts, the fire became more powerful, and its speed also began to increase -

“Hu…chi”

“Hu…chi”

“Hu…chi”

"Whoosh"

"Huff huff huff"

"Huff huff huff huff huff"

The speed of the train continued to increase, and the wind blew in from the window. The conductor left the window open only a small gap, and then took out a novel he was carrying with him.

There was plenty of space here, too. He glanced at the map before turning his attention to the novel.

Reading novels is his favorite thing to do while driving a train.

I killed time, gained some knowledge that may not be useful, and wasted a day.

The Czech Republic has been developing at an extremely fast pace in recent years and is already the strongest country with the best economy in the entire Asian region, without a doubt.

All of this is directly related to a series of policy formulations by the presidential cabinet.

The market is more open and free, and the emergence of private capital has given the entire Czech Republic a vibrant feel!

It’s like… spring blooming with vitality before midsummer arrives!
Every JED member knows that they are walking at the forefront of the times and are moving firmly towards a great direction!
This feeling that life gets better every day makes the Jed people deeply fascinated and addicted to it!

They are very honored, honored to be the background of the opening of a great era, even if it is just a background!
The public opinion and sentiment within the Republic of Czechoslovakia are very pure and united. Perhaps this is why they can create miracles in this rich yet poor land!

The train was moving at a steady speed on the rails. Seeing that it had entered Lapa, the conductor slowed down the speed a little.

In the past, he had encountered a situation where local indigenous people dismantled the railroad tracks and sold them for money out of greed.

Later, at the request of President Jed, they killed batches of them and finally succeeded in stopping this trend.

This is actually the characteristic of Yalan. The so-called "basic human rights" do not exist at all!

Whether it is the person who stole the rails, the person who sold the stolen goods, or the person who finally purchased the finished steel ingots, the whole family will return to God's arms in one piece.

After several fierce attacks, the momentum was immediately stopped.

Although it is a bit bloody and brutal, it is very useful.

It doesn’t actually take too long or too many things to go from questioning to understanding and then to recognition.

At this time, we have entered the hinterland of Lapa from an uninhabited area. There are people living around here, and the train conductor has been here before.

Some people who have never seen a train would run after it, which made him feel funny but also a little nervous.

In order to remind these people not to appear on the railway tracks, he very diligently blew the whistle a few times to alert those who might be in invisible places and tell them that the train was coming.

Pedro has brought his men to the designated location and has been there for more than an hour, but has not seen the "help" that Mr. Andy mentioned.

He was fine and could still bear it, but some of the people who followed him could no longer bear it.

More than an hour had not passed yet, and they wondered if they had been tricked by the Federal.

If Pedro had not been so prestigious, they might have left.

Just when some people couldn't help but test Pedro by complaining again, the sound of a whistle suddenly rang out in the jungle.

Everyone's attention was instantly drawn to the whistle.

Just as the train conductor understood the poverty and backwardness of this place, not everyone has seen a train, and not everyone has heard the sound of a whistle.

People subconsciously developed a fear of the unknown. Some people immediately stood up nervously, facing the direction where the whistle came from, and kept backing away.

Some people retreated and asked, "What is that sound?"

"Monster?"

Pedro had seen trains. He had seen trains when he went to the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and the train station called the "Miracle".

"Don't be nervous, it's a train."

After he said this, he was stunned for a moment, and then realized where the "food aid" that Mr. Andy mentioned came from.

These federals are more sinister and vicious than he imagined!

If they took this grain, they would never be able to remain in the same camp with the Lapa government again!

Because these foods are the food that Czech and Germans aid to Lapa. In a sense, they actually belong to the Lapa government!

They stole things from the Lapa government, and they still want to maintain a high degree of consistency with the Lapa government?
If Diego knew that it was them who did it, he would definitely send out troops to suppress them immediately!
But not taking it?

There are so many hungry people in the camp, waiting for food.

It’s easy not to take it, but what about those people?
You know, hunger is not just about having an empty stomach!
Long-term hunger can lead to organ failure, and you won’t survive long.

Those old people who eat every day but still keep dying.

Young people who eat every day but feel tired when doing anything and feel anxious when moving are caused by hunger!
Without this food, they would soon die slowly, bit by bit.

While others were still curious about what the train looked like, Pedro's face already showed helplessness.

Two minutes later, the "whooshing" sound of the train was getting closer and closer, and could be faintly heard.

Just as Pedro was wondering when Andy and his men would take action, a sudden explosion interrupted his thoughts, followed by intensive gunfire that echoed throughout the jungle.

The jungle became lively for a short while, but only for a moment.

Because most of the edible animals have already been caught.

The exchange of gunfire lasted less than ten minutes, and then he heard the sound of a car leaving, and a message from a loudspeaker sounded near the jungle.

"The food is on the train. Whoever grabs it first gets it."

Pedro was stunned again, and then shocked. He picked up a larger cloth bag and rushed towards the train.

What that sentence just said meant that they were not the only ones waiting for a “good harvest”!

When the others saw Pedro moving, they followed suit. They had adapted to life in the jungle in these days and had no problem running and jumping in the jungle.

And they were able to eat only half full so they didn't have much fat, and everyone looked very healthy.

Apart from the fact that they get out of breath when running, they can be called athletes!

When the group of people passed through a jungle in front of them, they saw the train tracks on the raised base, as well as the derailed locomotive and the front two carriages.

Pedro took a look at the blown-up railroad tracks and vaguely knew how the federals did it. At the same time, he also discovered another group of people.

And he knew the leader of that group of people.

They were classmates at Lance's seminar, and when they met again after a month or two, both Pedro and the guy opposite had complicated emotions.

There is joy.

This proves that they are not alone on this path.

What people fear most is loneliness. Once they feel lonely, they will start to enter a state of internal consumption. They will begin to doubt themselves and everything, and eventually go towards destruction or complete silence.

It is very important for people not to feel lonely.

So they will have joy.

But after the joy, there comes vigilance and caution.

This is a road that is bound to be lonely. The fact that they resolutely walk on this road means that they have to endure more pain and suffering than others!
They also have to face many things that they may or may not have considered.

For example, conspiracy, deception, betrayal...all kinds of bad things.

The relationships between people will become complicated. Many people can't even trust their own blood relatives, let alone they are just ordinary people who have only stayed together for seven days.

The smiles on their faces when they first saw each other quickly disappeared. They looked at each other and then rushed to the nearest carriage.

Soon, they discovered that there were more people around than just the two of them.

Pedro and his men pushed open the door of a train carriage, and the food that was full of food inside poured out with a loud noise, directly burying several people standing under the carriage.

Pedro was stunned for a moment, and quickly organized people to dig out these unlucky guys.

There was no fear or unhappiness on their faces, only surprise!
"This is Mai Ren!"

"We have food!"

Pedro was a little tired, so he untied the bag from his waist and started filling it frantically. Everyone else was filling it as well.

Some people simply grabbed a handful of wheat kernels and stuffed them into their mouths, chewing them slowly, with happy smiles and tears on their faces!

These wheat kernels are not shelled, which is actually a kind of "open conspiracy".

Do you think it is food?

Is it heavy enough?

Pedro's big pocket was soon filled. He looked up at the pile of food which had not been damaged much at all, and a faint sense of joy grew in his heart.

With so much food, everything will be fine.

They had made some plans and strategies before and originally thought that the food support would not be too much, but they did not expect that there would be so much!
People were busy packing food. The conflict that Pedro was worried about did not happen, and no one wasted time looting.

He looked at the long train and realized that they could not load all the food here by themselves!
At this time, not many people realized the source of this batch of food. Pedro did not say anything. He noticed that his colleagues might have realized it too, but they did not say anything either, let alone ask.

Talking about these things at this time will only affect the speed at which they obtain food. It is better to wait until everything is settled.

As the doors of the carriages were opened one by one, more food spilled onto the ground...

“We can get another batch!”

His colleague, the high school teacher, had an unconcealed look of ecstasy on his face. "There's too much food, and I found that some people have brought carts. We have to get some carts over too!"

Pedro glanced at the train and nodded, "Let's go back together!"

His colleague looked back hesitantly at the piles of food near the train and said, "Then these foods..."

Pedro carried the food on his back and weighed it. "They can't carry all the food in their pockets. Let's go back now and mobilize everyone."

He and his colleague looked at each other. They had been colleagues for more than ten years and they soon saw from each other's eyes what the other wanted to express.

This was a tacit understanding, and his colleagues did not continue to oppose it, but instead were very supportive.

A group of people walked quickly carrying food on their backs. They burst out with strength that they themselves could not imagine - this should have been a very difficult task.

Pedro was carrying at least seventy or eighty pounds of food, but at this moment he didn't feel the weight at all!

Their camp is some distance away, but it takes more than an hour to walk there without carrying anything.

Carrying the heavy load, it took me three hours to get back to the camp.

When people saw that they had brought back so much food, they were all surprised and delighted.

But soon, Pedro stood in the middle of the camp and told them that more food was waiting for them, and he asked everyone to take their tools and bring back more food!

No matter whether you are old, women or children, as long as you can move, go!

"Is it necessary to be so anxious?" his colleague walked up to him and asked him while taking a break to catch his breath.

Pedro took a sip of water. The cool water was refreshing and cooled down his hot body.

He looked at his colleague and said, "Don't tell me you don't know where this food comes from."

He looked around at the same time, and when he was sure that no one was approaching, he said, "Don't treat me as a fool. I read in the newspaper that this food comes from aid from the Republic of Czechoslovakia."

Pedro nodded. "So you think that this train suddenly lost contact, and Diego and his men would pretend not to see it?"

"I don't know what kind of deal they have, but I know that such a trainload of food must be worth a lot of money. At most, if it doesn't arrive in Zhuolan before dinner, Diego will send people to look for it along the way!"

"That much food may seem like a lot, but if we don't do our best, there won't be much left for us."

"A round trip takes at least five hours. How many more trips can we make?"

He looked at how people had been mobilized, patted his colleagues on the back, and walked over to instruct them on how to use the tools.

Yes, a tool for carrying.

For example, some elderly people, women, and children simply cannot carry objects weighing dozens of pounds.

But as long as the tools are made well, they can easily push dozens or even hundreds of pounds.

This is the biggest difference between humans and animals.

Humans not only use tools, they also make them.

But he also encountered a small problem.

Several parents of students thought that he should not dismantle some tents and other things in order to make transportation tools.

It took them a long time to build it. Now that they're dismantling it, wouldn't that mean all the previous work has been wasted?

Seeing their strong opposition, Pedro hesitated for a while, and finally decided to tell the truth...

(End of this chapter)