Chapter 274 Even if you are poor, you can’t be poor in Zuan
At this moment, Mrs. Ogersa still didn't know that her daughter had been abducted.
She was still focused on her duties as a diplomatic envoy for Demacia, busy meeting and talking with Levi, the president of the Guild of Leaders.
Although Levi is different from Mel and all the opponents that Lady Ogsa has encountered before, he only has the leadership qualities of a grassroots hero and does not have the manners and demeanor of an aristocratic gentleman.
This made her very uncomfortable
However, the contacts and exchanges between the two sides went very smoothly at the beginning.
Because Demacia needs the friend Kingpin, and Kingpin also needs food imports from Demacia.
If both parties to a cooperation have needs for each other, the cooperation will be much easier to discuss.
The only controversy is to what extent this "friend" must go in order to satisfy both parties.
Demacia's opinion is:
"Let the Leader send troops to assist Demacia in its eastern defense war and help Demacia guard the Gate of Sorrow?" Levi couldn't help but frowned slightly when he heard this condition.
"Yes." Madam Ogatha explained in a prepared manner: "But please rest assured. We don't need the Wind Leader to fight for Demacia. We just need to let the Wind Leader's flag appear on the battlefield of Demacia."
"I understand." Levi certainly understood: "You just want to drag me into the water and help you attract the firepower of the Noxians?"
"..."Mrs. Ogersa was still not used to Levi's overly Zaun-style terms.
This is not elegant. It is not suitable for a formal diplomatic occasion.
But what Levi said was right.
"Is there no need for the Leader to fight for Demacia?" That sounds good.
But as long as the flag of the Leader appears on the battlefield, it means that he has openly allied with the Kingdom of Demacia and declared war on the Noxian Empire.
Looking at the map again, Zaun is so close to Noxus, but so far from Demacia. By then, won't Noxus have to "pacify the country before fighting against foreign enemies" and pour all its firepower on the leader?
At that time, the Leaders will have no way to retreat, because behind them is... Demacia, 10,000 miles away.
To protect Demacia, they need to fight to the last Zaunite.
"You don't treat us as friends, but as suckers." Levi said rudely.
Isn't it just sending a signal to trick teammates whose heads are worthless into coming over to sell them so that you can run away easily?
He is familiar with this trick.
"President Levi, you worry too much." Madam Ogersa's expression remained unchanged, still maintaining her elegance and grace: "The Wind Leader is blessed by the great goddess Janna. Even if we openly form an alliance, the Noxian Empire will most likely not take action against Zaun."
"Those Noxians will only be intimidated by the strategic deterrence of the alliance between Demacia and Zaun and stop their greedy and shameless war of aggression. President Levi, please seriously consider this proposal - the peace of Runeterra is in our hands now."
"Peace? I'm afraid you're only talking about the peace in Demacia!" Levi still mocked without giving any face.
Although he hated the aggressive Noxian Empire, he also disliked Demacia's practice of talking about justice but not peace, pursuing interests while occupying the moral high ground.
"Do you know how much it would cost if Zaun and Noxus were to decouple—even if it wasn't a full-scale war, but just a complete economic decoupling?"
"All of our food imports come from Noxus, and more than 80% of our industrial exports go to Noxus."
"If we openly ally with Demacia today, you'll see millions of unemployed workers on the streets tomorrow."
Li Wei's tone was very serious. He couldn't bear such consequences.
But Lady Ogersa thought that this was completely affordable: "Food imports can be provided by us in Demacia."
"As for the unemployment problem caused by the obstruction of industrial product exports..."
This is not a problem at all in the eyes of the old noble Ogasha.
"As long as those ordinary people have something to eat, they won't cause any trouble." Ogersa said experiencedly.
With the war going on, how can the people on the front lines continue to live and work in peace? Isn't it normal to be unemployed?
"As long as we keep food supplies flowing and implement wartime controls, Zaun will remain a rock."
"As for the lives of those unemployed Zaun workers... they will have to suffer for a while before Noxus capitulates and retreats."
Perhaps realizing that what she said was a bit too much, Ogatha also added: "We in Demacia will try to make up for the economic losses caused to Zaun by the war confrontation through various forms of assistance."
"for example……"
"No, absolutely not." Levi had no interest in listening.
He didn't want to let the people of Zaun suffer just to help Demacia catch its breath.
Although he did not advocate Zaun first, nor was he a supporter of the one-city-building theory, he was very clear about one thing:
Now, as long as conditions permit, he must give priority to Zaun's economic development and the living standards of Zaun's people, rather than anything else.
Why has Goddess Gana's strength recovered so quickly recently?
Why has the faith of the Leader spread so rapidly in Zaun in the past few months?
In addition to the natural affinity of Zaun workers for Janna's thoughts and the effective propaganda work of the Wind Leader, there is another most important, very common but also very realistic reason:
That is, ordinary people can see that the leader has truly made the lives of Zaun people better.
"In fact, until more than two months ago, when the goddess Janna descended on the twin cities, our publicity work in Zaun and Piltover was not as smooth as outsiders imagined."
Because not everyone is born with a high level of ideological awareness.
For most ordinary people, including the poor in Zaun, no matter what ideas or doctrines you promote to them, it will have no effect at all.
In our simple expectations, only ideas that can make us live a good life immediately are good ideas.
At that time, the Guild of Warlords had just established a foothold in Zaun, and the living standards in the base were far from comparable to those in Piltover.
Therefore, the publicity work of leaders often encounters this problem:
You tell him about seed benzene exploitation.
He tells you that people in Piltover eat steak and live in big mansions;
You tell him about the world's great peace.
He tells you that people in Piltover eat steak and live in big mansions;
Tell him where Piltover's excess profits come from and how much blood and sweat of third world workers are behind Piltover's prosperity.
He tells you that people in Piltover make 300 silver wheels a month washing dishes.
…
After talking about so many theories, can your theories make the lives of people in Zaun as good ?
Since Piltover can live so happily by practicing benzodiazepineism, then benzodiazepineism must be right and perfect.
Your Janna thought is wrong and naive to oppose such perfect seed benism;
Many Zaun people thought so at that time.
The result is that it is useless to promote Janna's ideas to them.
Propaganda the national hatred between Piltover and Zaun and shouting the simple slogan "Make Zaun great again" can actually achieve good results.
This situation continued until...
"It lasted until the goddess Janna descended on the Twin Cities, Camille's reactionary group was destroyed, Piltover's Ziben fled, the economy collapsed, and it fell into a terrible depression..."
After seeing how powerful the goddess was and how the people of Piltover were living in poverty while their own lives were getting better, everyone began to believe that Janna’s ideas were truly useful.
From then on, the faith of Janna began to spread at a rocket speed.
"Although Janna's faith is widespread in Zaun, it is not yet deep."
"In order to allow the Wind Leader to truly gain a foothold in Zaun, I will never let Zaun be involved in the war too early and let the people of Zaun suffer unnecessary hardships."
Levi opposed Zaun's priority, but supported Zaun's temporary lead.
Because people naturally yearn for a better life and admire and yearn for the strong.
In the past, the people of Zaun envied the prosperity of Piltover and could not accept the big picture painted by the Leader.
Current and future outsiders will also begin to become interested in Janna's theories because they envy Zaun's prosperity.
But if the people of Zaun under the rule of the Wind Leader were still a bunch of poor people... then outsiders would probably be unimpressed by Janna's ideas.
"I look forward to making Zaun a holy place for Janna's faith and a beacon of the civilized world," Levi said without hesitation.
Although Levi knew that the fuel for this lighthouse must come from workers all over the world.
But on the propaganda front, this lighthouse is bright and useful.
Only by making Zaun a model of wealth in Runeterra and a mountaintop city that people all over the world yearn for, can we impress those pragmatists who only look at the effects and not the principles, and make them actively accept Janna's ideas.
Therefore, at least before the Windleader achieves final victory across all of Runeterra, the lighthouse of Zaun must still stand out from the crowd.
"So I won't let the people of Zaun suffer. Moreover, it's for the sake of Demacia, thousands of miles away."
"Do you understand, Lady Ogersa?"
Ogatha was amazed at Levi's frankness and his undisguised ambition for the whole world.
But even if Levi didn't say this, she could read it from Goddess Janna's theory. It's actually not that scary.
After all, Demacia and Zaun are not companions in ideology, but only allies in interests.
"I understand." Seeing Levi's firm attitude, Ogasha had no choice but to give up her original idea.
In fact, Demacia had never expected that Zaun would so readily agree to help take the blame.
She made this embarrassing cooperation request just to ask for a high price and get paid back on the spot.
It is not convenient for Zaun to openly become an enemy of Noxus now, but...
"There are still many things we can do privately."
Mrs. Ogersa was just about to put forward another condition when Levi came up with the same idea as her.
It’s just that Ogata wanted to trick Zaun into risking his life, while Levi wanted to persuade Demacia to bleed.
"It's not convenient for Zaun to fight for Demacia." Levi smiled slightly, "But as allies, we have every chance to fight together - and this opportunity has arrived."
"Opportunity?" Ogasha was puzzled.
"Yes." Levi tapped lightly on the map, pointing his finger at Ionia: "In fact, we, the Leaders, have already semi-openly fought against Noxus on the battlefield of Ionia."
"Madam Ogersa, are there any Demacia warriors willing to come and help?"
