Chapter 348 "Leader" Irelia
A moment later, the high-level meeting of the resistance army was finally officially convened.
This meeting brought together the 32 greatest heroes of Ionia, the 32 brightest stars of Navoli , and the 32 most respected masters.
The legendary sects such as Gale, Lotus, Shuoji, and Ionia Temple made a collective appearance, and the ancient families with a thousand-year heritage such as Sharma, Devidi, and Vyas gathered together...
What would a meeting like this with an all-star lineup look like?
In the imagination of ordinary people, this conference scene must be more solemn and majestic than the Karma Reincarnation Ceremony held once every century in the Eternal Temple.
From the perspective of Miss Irelia, who was hosting the meeting, the meeting looked like:
"circus."
"This is simply a circus." Irelia thought.
When she was a child, she went to the circus with her mother to watch monkey acrobatics, but it was not as lively as this.
Masters from different sects and families, all standing on their own standpoints, exchanged opinions fiercely around every topic raised at the meeting.
As the leader of the resistance army, Irelia sat high on the throne, but she could only helplessly hold her forehead in her hands amid the noisy quarrels.
When she was 14 years old and took the leadership position with the support of everyone, she never imagined that the work of a leader would be so difficult.
And she is only 15 years old now, 16 at most.
There was still a youthful innocence between her brows, and her cheeks were so white and tender that it was hard to feel awe.
Although the war has honed Irelia's strength and decisiveness when facing the enemy, her naturally gentle and kind character has prevented her from mastering the dominance and "cruelness" she should have when facing her subordinates.
"Everyone, please be quiet!"
"Since we can't reach a consensus right now, we can postpone the discussion of this topic..."
Irelia tried to shout to stop them, but her voice was quickly drowned out by the noisy sound in the venue.
It was as if she was not the "head teacher" of this class at all, but a student arranged by the head teacher to sit on the podium as the duty monitor.
Facing the "classmates" below, she had no authority at all.
There is no way...
The people in front of her were all masters from famous families. In terms of age, seniority, and contribution, no one was inferior to her.
Moreover, they are all "franchised lords" who bring their own capital into the group and command their own army.
Although everyone respectfully calls Irelia a master and a leader.
But in fact, the masters can't really be considered as Irelia's subordinates. They are more like shareholders and partners of the company.
As the chairman, Irelia does not have much equity in her hands, and she has no means of managing people or employing them, so she can only be a nominal leader whose words carry no weight.
"Sigh..." At this moment, she even missed the Noxians.
Because only when the Noxians launched an attack could the rebels show their rare unity.
Once the Noxians leave and the situation becomes peaceful, the rebels will face endless infighting...
Just like now.
"Enough!" Suddenly, a lion's roar was heard at the scene.
Someone stood up from his seat with a serious look on his face, looking around disdainfully:
"There is no two suns in the sky, and no two masters in the house!"
"If you still regard Master Irelia as your leader, then you should stop this meaningless quarrel and let Master Irelia make the final decision!"
The speaker was a middle-aged monk with a square face, a bald head, a dark face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, looking very majestic.
Everyone recognized him; he was Master Qingxia from Shuoji Monastery.
The Monastery of Shojin is one of the four oldest sects in Ionia, and its status is comparable to that of the Monasteries of the Eternal, the Balance, and the Silana.
The serious statement made by the master from Shuoji was more effective than the two hums from Irelia.
The venue suddenly became quiet, and the masters put aside their disputes and turned their eyes to the main seat.
"Master Qingxia..." Irelia looked at him gratefully.
Master Qingxia is a man of strong and resolute character, completely different from her.
Irelia was young and had no idea about management. Over the past year or so, it was only with the dedicated assistance of Master Qingxia that she was able to successfully integrate the chaotic internal forces of the resistance army and achieve successive victories over the Noxians.
So she was very grateful to Master Qingxia.
But Master Qingxia had no time to talk to this little girl.
He simply asked without further delay: "Master Irelia, we have discussed the issue of flexibly adjusting the grain collection ratio by region for a long enough time."
"What is your decision?"
"I..." Irelia was speechless for a moment.
She looked at everyone present, and the masters gave her different looks.
Some people were in favor, others were strongly against it. No matter which way she chose, she would deeply offend a group of people.
"Let's vote." Irelia wanted to say this.
But it was useless because there were only so many people at the meeting and everyone's position was clear.
Which party will get the majority of votes can actually be determined before the vote.
If she said that the decision was made by voting, then she was actually taking a clear stand.
As for her own opinion…sorry, what professional opinion can she have?
She was not even 16 years old and knew almost nothing.
When her grandmother was alive, she only taught her how to chop people... ahem... how to dance, but she never taught her how to be a leader!
This leadership career over the past year or so only taught Irelia how to lead troops in battle, but did not teach her how to handle internal affairs.
When she thought that a casual stroke of her pen could affect the fate of thousands of people in Navoli... she suddenly lost her confidence and could not make the determination a leader should have.
"I..." As the leader, Irelia was stunned for a moment under the gaze of everyone.
" Whatever." Master Qingxia sighed in disappointment. "Let's do as Master Irelia said before and put this issue aside for now and postpone the discussion."
"Well, let's move on to the next topic..."
"Huh..." Irelia breathed a sigh of relief, as if she had escaped a disaster.
The pressure the Noxians gave her on the battlefield was not as great as that in this meeting.
But her relief only lasted for a moment.
Because the next topic caused even more intense reactions:
"The leader of the Vastayan Freedom Army has sent an invitation. They hope that Master Irelia can make an official visit to the Navoli Mountains where they are stationed on behalf of the Presidian Resistance."
The Vastaya Freedom Army is also a resistance force active in the Navoli Province.
This news sounds like just a foreign affairs invitation from friendly forces.
But the message contained in it is far from simple, because...
"The Vastaya people actually invited humans to visit them?" Questioning voices immediately arose in the conference hall.
Although both sides have a common enemy, the Noxian Empire, they are theoretically friendly forces.
But the relationship between the Vastaya Freedom Army and the rebels has never been good.
In other words, the relationship between the Vastaya and humans has never been good.
Vastaya is a half-human, half-beast hybrid creature on Runeterra. They are the descendants of early humans who fled the Void War and some prehistoric magical creatures.
Xia, Rakan, Ahri, Wukong, Nami, Neeko, Rengar... These orcs of different shapes and forms are all members of the huge race called Vastaya.
They have lived in Ionia since ancient times and, like humans, are the indigenous inhabitants of this nascent land.
In fact, they are the product of the reproduction of humans and Vastaya Xiarui, and can be considered a branch of humans in terms of bloodline.
But at the same time, Vastaya are definitely not human, and are clearly different from humans in appearance.
So here comes the question:
When two ethnic groups with distinct characteristics and different cultures are crammed onto a continent with limited resources.
One side has a larger population and more power, and its civilization and technology are increasingly advanced.
The other side is small and weak, and sticks to tradition and remains stagnant all year round.
What happens next?
Of course there is only the ruthless conquest of the weaker race by the stronger race.
Although the humans of Ionia do not dare to over-exploit nature, they dare to seize the land that the Vastaya have already cultivated.
So in the past nearly 10,000 years, the habitat of the Vastaya people has shrunk step by step under the encroachment of humans. Some have been driven to the mountains to become mountain dwellers, and some have been confined to a small reserved land...
Many tribes were even driven out of their homes without even a piece of reservation left.
"The leaders of this Vastaya Freedom Army seem to be Xia and Rakan of the Lothalan tribe, right?" said someone who knew the inside story at the scene:
"The Notlan tribe was driven out of Kuilin Island by humans more than a decade ago and became a nomadic tribe with no fixed place to live."
"So the woman named Xia has always hated humans extremely."
"The Vastayan Freedom Army she led made it clear that their goal was to gain freedom from the hands of 'humans', not Noxus."
These vastaya hate all humanity, not just those of Noxus.
Now they are fighting Noxus only because the Noxian butcher knife has been cut down on their heads. This does not mean that the Vastaya are friends of humans.
It’s not hard to imagine… once the Noxians withdraw, they’ll probably come to settle accounts with the humans of Ionia.
"These Vastaya people hate humans so much, why did they invite Master Irelia over?" someone asked puzzled.
“For negotiations,” Irelia said. “The Vastaya want me to come over and negotiate with them face to face, so that we can return the lands that the Vastaya tribes have occupied in Navoli Province.”
"Here's what happened..."
Several Vastaya
Later, the Noxians occupied their homeland, forcing them to take to the mountains to fight guerrilla warfare.
Later, the Presidian resistance grew stronger and stronger, and just before the Vastaya people, they snatched the land back from the Noxian Empire.
Now the Vastaya people believe that this is the land where they have lived for generations and that the rebels should return it to them.
“I think this land can be returned.”
"After all, the policy of our Presidium Resistance has always been to uphold justice for all people in Ionia and to ensure that our compatriots have a home to return to and a place to live as much as possible."
This time, Irelia had her own opinion.
Because their Presidium Resistance Army has been a pure "public welfare organization" from the very beginning.
They have been committed to resisting the Noxian invaders and helping the displaced Ionians regain their homeland.
According to the previously agreed rules, the land occupied by the rebels will not belong to the masters leading the army, but will be returned to the original owners of the land as much as possible.
If the original owner cannot be found or is dead, the rebels will step in as officials, recruit refugees to resume production and unify management to provide military supplies.
It is equivalent to a kind of wartime public ownership of land.
As for how to divide these military-controlled public lands after the war, should they continue to be military settlements or privatized... Irelia had never thought about this, and the masters had never discussed it.
Irelia couldn't think that far.
In short, let’s talk about the facts:
“According to our land restitution policy, this land should be returned to the Vastaya people.”
“I think there’s no problem with that.” Irelia said confidently, “This is the first time that the Vastayan Freedom Army has taken the initiative to invite humans to visit. We can definitely use this opportunity to ease the tension between humans and the Vastayan.”
It was rare for the girl to have her own political opinions.
Moreover, her attitude was quite firm, without any hesitation as before.
However……
"No!" The voices of opposition almost drowned out the meeting hall.
The masters who had been fighting among themselves just now were unusually united this time.
Unfortunately, they all united against Irelia:
"We conquered this land, and we must not give it back to them!"
"Also, Master Irelia..."
The masters looked at each other, as if they had already reached some consensus:
“It’s time to change our outdated land repatriation policy.”
