Crook Plantation can almost be considered the largest plantation in the Northern Green Valley Region. The surname Crook has been passed down here for four generations.
They have always been the masters of the plantation, and over time they have grown and expanded so that now, their status in the Northern Green Valley Region is of great significance.
A few months ago, the old master passed away, and now Kroc is in charge.
The younger generation, as it happens, harbors even greater ambition than their predecessors.
Disregarding whether this ambition is reasonable or not, at least Kroc believes that he is a man of grand aspirations.
He is not content with merely being a local tycoon of the Green Valley Region, living off of the land like his ancestors—albeit at the expense of others' labor while he reaps the benefits.
Nonetheless, he feels that the Crook family can take things a step further.
The current crisis in the Green Valley Region and the establishment of the Mutual Aid Society, supported by the Alliance, present a golden opportunity that he values highly.
He responded enthusiastically to the creation of the Mutual Aid Society and, utilizing his own influence, persuaded and affected the participation of many other plantations.
This was not difficult.
Firstly, the Mutual Aid Society was inherently advantageous and mutually beneficial; secondly, Crook Manor, as the largest plantation, indeed played a leading role in actively responding to the Mutual Aid Society.
His goal, in fact, is not at all complicated: he hopes to become the controller of the Mutual Aid Society, transforming it from an organization of mutual assistance formed under the aid of the Alliance into a genuine political entity stretching across the Green Valley Region.
He has excluded all Alliance-appointed individuals from the Mutual Aid Committee, granting them mere observer status, while the real power structures are under the control of the plantation owners and militia commanders. As long as he firmly occupies the position of committee chairman and leads well, that will suffice.
Afterwards, the gradual improvement of various governmental mechanisms will ensure that power is truly implemented from top to bottom.
Of course, he is not so naïve as to believe that transforming the Mutual Aid Society into a political entity will allow him to stand up against the Alliance or the Governor. However... the so-called Alliance is not a centralized government. Ever since the establishment of the Alliance by one generation of Governors, we have always been a member of the Alliance and have never left it.
Still under the framework of the Alliance, but as an autonomous regional government that maintains a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with the Alliance Central, wouldn't that be wonderful?
Of course, he is well aware that, given the current state of the GreenValley Region, taking a hard stance against the Alliance Headquarters is definitely not feasible. What he strives for is political benefits. In his view, the Green Valley Region has a population and significant food production, which provides a basis for negotiating with the Alliance Headquarters.
Even if it is inevitable that in the future the region will be completely absorbed by the Alliance, by then, Kroc would need a satisfactory explanation. Becoming a senior official within the Alliance is also not out of the question.
But he did not anticipate that the Alliance would not give him time.
Kroc is somewhat panicked.
Has my cunning plan been seen through? Is the Alliance targeting me?
He called for a grand meeting of the Mutual Aid Society Committee.
The venue was at Crook Manor, which also serves as the headquarters of the Mutual Aid Society.
A circular hall, with its center lower and the surroundings gradually elevated. Wooden tables and chairs were arranged on the steps around the hall for the committee members to sit. And in the very center of the circular dais was the podium.
Inside the meeting hall, Kroc was inciting the thoughts of the other plantation owners.
Standing in the center of the conference hall, Kroc spoke passionately.
"I believe many of you have received the news that Commander Yan Fangxu of the Central Group Army is marching southward. According to the latest orders from the Alliance, we need to provide supplies for this army."
"Not just food supplies, but also our militia forces, which we have painstakingly established over these past few months, are to be incorporated under the command of Commander Yan Fangxu."
"Consider what happened in the Central Province two months ago. A large number of settlements were abolished; a large number of survivors were captured by the Alliance; the people who had worked tirelessly to sustain the settlements and protect their people were sent to the guillotine, found guilty."
"The Alliance is planning to take away everything from us, just as they did to the people of the Central Province two months ago."
His remarks indeed stirred up many people's minds.
The sudden move south by the Central Group Army truly caused panic.
The plantation owners are worried that their properties will be confiscated. Under the policies of the Alliance, it seems that fully independent, private properties do not exist.
However, even if their thoughts have been provoked, most people are still largely silent at this moment.
Worries aside, but... should they really oppose the Alliance because of this?
Let's set other considerations aside for the moment and look at the attitudes of the militia commanders.
Now, the military force of the Mutual Aid Society completely consists of militias.
Among the militia commanders, those elected by the plantation owners are still manageable, and for the time being, they can maintain a stance that aligns with the plantation owners who elected them.
But those bandits who have been surrendered and whitewashed are a completely different matter.
Being placed under the command of the Central Group Army... to them, it doesn't seem so bad.
The bandits who were recruited and whitewashed originally took up that lifestyle out of desperation and the need to survive. The plantation owners show no particular mercy to them, and they have no fixed properties in the Beiqing Valley Region.