Chapter 2551 War and Opportunity
There was no one named Duran in the General Staff. Zeke, who returned to Marley, found the problem after investigation, but before he could continue the investigation, he and Pieck were dispatched to the front line of the war.
The war with the neighboring country began. In order to seize fuel resources, Marley launched an invasion war. However, the technological advantages of the Marley people and the giants are no longer so obvious, and the weapons technology of the neighboring country has caught up. The war, which was originally planned to end in a month, has been stalemate.
The advancement of Marley has been greatly hindered.
"Marley has regarded its temporary technological advantage as a lifetime advantage. This is their mistake. We must defeat them this time."
Marley encountered the most difficult war in a hundred years.
A large number of honorary Marleyans were sent to the army as cannon fodder. Marleyans can still be promoted in the army, but honorary Marleyans cannot be promoted in the army unless they conceal their identities. Even so, the honorary Marleyans cannot refuse. The young and middle-aged can only gather from the quarantine area to the front line to participate in the most difficult battle.
The puppet army composed of honorary Marleyans charged forward, sacrificed countless lives, and had to bear the punishment for unfavorable combat.
Under such circumstances, Grisha began to fight back and forth, with one hand promoting in the Marley army and the other in neighboring countries.
Propaganda against the legitimacy of invasion in neighboring countries, and propaganda against the wrongness of invasion in Marley.
Of course, the militia corps will not forget to go deep into the countryside. Grisha led like-minded people to the countryside of Marley to communicate with those living in misery and understand the current situation of this country.
Marley is really similar to Eldia, and it is similar in all aspects. They don't care about the life and death of the lower-class people. It's just that in Marley, all the unhappy people can put the pot on the Eldians, while in Eldia, all the unhappy pots are carried by the giants.
The objects of the pot are different.
Grisha had to sigh that humans are really the same, but everyone complains so much because the current situation cannot be changed. If it can be changed, there will definitely be fewer complaints. The question is how to make them change their ideas and fight with the Eldians?
In fact, it is very simple. As long as the top leaders can put aside the propaganda of ethnic confrontation, the people will naturally cooperate. Although they may be reluctant in their hearts, they will certainly cooperate in action.
So we still have to overthrow the Marley nobles, so we must first awaken some people.
Grisha must unite a group of people as much as possible during the war, and then use the countryside as a base to confront the Marley nobles.
When promoting new ideas, Grisha must first take out a country as a model. No matter what this country looks like, it must be good, advanced, and operated by a different system in the propaganda.
He took the example of the East, which is the hometown of Mikasa's mother's bloodline. The East is far away from Marley, and basically only a few people have been there. So it can be beautified, and those non-existent talent selection systems can be pressed on the East, and then praise how peaceful and wealthy they are, and how the East does not rely on the nobles to govern the country. The final propaganda result is to learn from the East's system to transform Marley.
In short, it is to hold up a typical example to make the Marley people realize that their route is not the only route, and inheriting the system of the Eldians is itself a repetition of mistakes.
If we only promote the system without a real reference country, the effect of the promotion will be half the effort. With a reference country, it is easier for everyone to believe. After all, these ideas have been "practiced" and have successful experience, so they can do it by imitating, and everyone's enthusiasm will naturally be high.
The current level of science and technology is not very advanced, and few people can go abroad. Even intellectuals have limited understanding of the outside world, so they believe what others say.
Grisha's words are firm, coupled with a fierce propaganda offensive, the East Country instantly became an ideal country, a country that Marleyans should learn to emulate, a country without nobles, and a country ruled by intellectuals.
Under this immediate propaganda offensive, Grisha's current power is more powerful than the restorationists fifteen years ago.
However, there are still many people who are afraid of the Eldians, afraid that they will suddenly become giants.
So Grisha continued to promote that being eaten by a giant is death, being killed by a noble is also death, and establishing a new country may also die. Is a dead country okay?
Moreover, Grisha also deeply analyzed these people who questioned, and they were actually bullies who only bullied the weak and feared the strong. He pointed out that Marley and Eldia had never fought against countries stronger than themselves from the beginning to the end. They were all bullies who only bullied the weak and feared the strong. They did not dare to resist the strong and hit the weak hard.
Throughout history, except for the civil war of the Eldians, all other wars were launched by taking advantage of the giants. No war was won by the weak against the strong. Marley and its people have long become bullies who only pick on the weak.
This kind of propaganda without giving face really woke up many Marley people. In addition, this war was unprecedentedly resisted, and Marley's traditional advantages disappeared visibly, making more people realize that Grisha was not wrong. They have always been bullies who only bullied the weak and feared the strong. When they really met a strong enemy, they had no confidence in winning. They realized that they really only had a temporary advantage, not that Marley really had a permanent civilization advantage.
When the war lasted for half a year, the inside of Marley was boiling, because there had never been a war that could be dragged on for so long. In the past, as long as the giants rushed to the other side, the other side would surrender. But now the neighboring country not only did not surrender, but also resisted stubbornly for half a year, which had a huge impact on the economy of the Marley Empire and seriously overdrawn military expenditures.
Originally, war was to fight to support war. As long as you win, you can get slaves, resources and wealth, and you can make a lot of money if you win. This has been the case for the past hundred years. But now the resistance of neighboring countries has made the war last longer, the consumption has increased, and even if you win, you will earn less.
Is it really worthwhile to continue fighting?
It is not worth it, but you must fight, because if Marley retreats without winning, the consequences will be serious. The whole world will know that Marley's military advantage has disappeared, and they will no longer have to fear Marley.
At that time, Marley's former enemies will come to the door, and Marley's leading position will not be preserved. Because you can't bear to lose your position as the world's number one military power, you must win.
However, the war that exceeded expectations has made countries around the world realize that the times have really changed. The era of the invincible giants has passed. Now, relying on giant ships and cannons, they can still fight back and forth with Marley.
Coupled with all kinds of messy propaganda in Marley, everyone found that Marley, which was admired by everyone a hundred years ago, has actually shown signs of fatigue and has begun to age.
And what Marley fears most is that people will find out that it is not good enough, so it continues to allocate funds to the battlefield to fight a war that will not end when it is unknown, and continues to allocate funds to continue fighting.
At this time, domestic contradictions will inevitably become more and more acute, so populism will be used to control the people, so that the people can get catharsis and wealth by exploiting the Eldians in the quarantine zone.
Do you want to survive, do you want to get rich? The wealth is in the hands of the Eldians. Taking up weapons to attack and kill the Honorary Marleyans is not a crime, and robbing their wealth is supported by the nobles. Anyway, the Honorary Marleyans are all sons of the devil, and they deserve to be robbed.
Use populism to give the people a channel to vent and ease domestic contradictions.