Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 411

Chapter 410, Expedition of Atonement, Independent Kingdom

When Martins was escorting Blevins and eight others on the way to the Wrathful Owl Star, Gu Hang had already received the intelligence sent back by the Phoenix.

In this intelligence, Martins did not hide anything from Gu Hang. The origins of Blevins and his gang, as well as a series of intelligence about the “Ashes of the Dead” warband, were all attached in detail in the report.

After reading it, Gu Hang actually had a plan for how to deal with Blevins and the other eight people.

There is no doubt that Martins hopes to save these people’s lives.

Don’t look at the intelligence sent back from the front line, which records every conversation between Martins and Blevins. Words like “empire traitor”, “chastity of the warband”, “coward” and so on are all hitting Blevins and his gang’s heads. Moreover, in Martins’ own report, the crimes of these people were clearly written, and it was claimed that all the power of judgment lies in the hands of the supporters, masters, and saviors of the warband, that is, Gu Hang.

But if Martins really wanted to wash away his shame, wouldn’t he just kill these eight traitors on the spot?

Even if he cared about the so-called correct process, or wanted to give them a ceremonial trial, he shouldn’t have said that the fate of these people would be judged by Gu Hang.

Reporting to the Empire, whether it is the Imperial Inquisition or the Space Marine Management Agency, they are more suitable judges – of course, that would cause the Phoenix’s reputation, which had been washed up with great difficulty, to drop a lot, and it might even attract an investigation, which would not be worth the loss.

But no matter what, in name, what does Gu Hang have to do with the Phoenix? It’s

nothing more than a sponsor. Gu Hang is indeed the actual controller of the Phoenix Regiment, but when Martins set out, Gu Hang had already made it clear that for those who might be traitors of the Phoenix, Martins would be fully responsible.

As a result, Martins still brought the people back alive.

Don’t look at what he says, just look at what he does.

As for whether these people are dead or alive, Gu Hang really doesn’t care.

Just eight Space Marines.

Even if they are all century-old veterans and elites, so what?

Gu Hang can now create space warriors in batches. Including gene seeds and personnel screening, it only costs about a thousand points of grace; the Alliance can already mass-produce MK4 majestic power armor, and even the cost can be controlled below 100,000 tax coins.

For Gu Hang, space warriors are no longer a scarce commodity.

Eight century-old veterans are indeed quite powerful and can serve as the middle backbone, but after all, with the training system in Gu Hang’s hands, it only costs an extra 200 points to train a single space warrior into a veteran; even if Blevins and his men have reached the level of sergeant, Gu Hang can get a new one by spending an extra 400 points.

It is for this reason that Gu Hang let Martins deal with it himself.

It is really good to pick up eight veterans for free and save tens of thousands of grace points; but if Martins insists on destroying this group of people, Gu Hang has no objection.

However, judging from the current situation, since Martins wanted to keep these people alive, or at least had a conflicted mentality, Gu Hang felt that it was not a bad idea to accept them.

As for the risk, he didn’t think there was any.

According to Blevins’s confession, they had been very cautious in their past actions. It was only recently that they came to the Pegasus region to lure Martins out, so they repainted their power armor red. If they had not even painted red when they were operating normally before, and had used all kinds of other colors, who knows who they were. They

just announced to the outside world that they had killed these “pirates” when they were on Juedus.

As for those who really knew the truth, there were still a few after all, mainly the elites of the 10th Brigade. The reliability of these people was also quite high, and Gu Hang was not worried that they would leak the secret.

Of course, they couldn’t just let them off so easily. After all, they were guilty.

The death penalty can be avoided, but the living crime cannot be escaped.

Gu Hang gave Martins a suggestion, or instruction: set up a new company under the regiment, named “Atonement Company”. After Blevins and the other eight people re-swore allegiance to the Emperor, their past affairs would be kept secret by the entire regiment and the Alliance. However, the Atonement Company they belonged to would participate in the most difficult part of every battle of the Phoenix Regiment in the future.

The Alliance would not engage in the Atonement Expedition. Not providing reinforcements and lacking supplies would obviously send people to die. All treatment would be the same as that of normal Phoenix warriors. They would not be deprived of the equipment and supplies they should have, and the support forces they should provide, nor would they be asked to perform any missions that would ensure their death.

But at the same time, they must also bear the difficult task of attacking the enemy, and they cannot shirk their responsibilities. Moreover, they must fight well when all normal conditions are provided.

…

That was how the eight people including Blevins were dealt with.

Compared to the eight of them, Gu Hang was more interested in the past of the Phoenix and the information about the “Ashes Dead” mentioned by Blevins and the others.

He had previously looked up information about the “Bauhinia Rebellion” that led to the Phoenix being sentenced to the Atonement Expedition.

That was highly confidential information. At first, Gu Hang could only get a few words and some Phoenix statements from Martins and Pastor Rizzo.

But these were rather one-sided and thin.

Later, when Gu Hang’s “good brother”, Boggio Gallardo, became rich, it was easier for Gu Hang to find out about this information.

Gallardo gave him an internal confidential report.

The Bauhinia Rebellion took place in a star region called “Bauhinia”, which is located in the Spider Web Universe, within the Princess Star Region.

The Spider Web Universe is right next to the Eastern Universe, located in the north on the star map.

In the Bauhinia Star Region, there is a regiment with the same name as the star region, called the Bauhinia Regiment. This is also a sub-regiment of the Phoenix Legion, with the same bloodline as the Phoenix.

In the Spider Web Universe, there is another regiment called “Iron Armor”. Compared to Bauhinia and Phoenix, the Iron Armored Regiment is much more famous. They directly guard the Empress Star Region, and together with multiple star regions, they form a defense network. The main enemy they face is the Void Zerg.

The Void Zerg is a terrible alien creature. Individuals among them do not have their own will, but are completely under the command of the node creatures at a higher level.

Their biological fleets are across the planetary sea, and each ship can be regarded as a huge space creature. They are real destroyers. When they visit a planet, they will soon devour all the life on the entire planet, destroy the local ecosystem, and lay down a large amount of “meat blankets”. These meat blankets will absorb nutrients from the entire planet and efficiently absorb stellar energy. At the same time, they will hatch more void insect beasts, and even hatch many parts and send them into space to form new biological starships.

A hive fleet arrived at the Empress Star Region in the conventional physical space navigation mode and caused great damage. It was not until the arrival of Iron Armor and several war groups allied with Iron Armor that the situation in the Empress Star Region was controlled and the power of the Void Zerg was suppressed within a few star regions.

Although the disaster was controlled, the characteristics of the Void Zerg represent an endless huge number and the characteristics of super-fast recovery of troops. In addition, the planets devoured by the Void Zerg are all their meat blankets. Even if humans take them back, they can basically not use them again.

For this reason, considering that the price to be paid to recapture these planets is too high, the Empire has ordered Iron Armor and several war groups to establish a defense belt around the multiple star regions invaded by the Zerg. The goal of the human empire is to control the situation in the area and not let the empire invest more power. After all, at that time, the preparations for the Solar Expedition were in full swing, and a large amount of manpower and material resources were concentrated in the southern part of the empire. There were really not enough resources to solve this major disaster.

For this reason, the Empire also granted the Iron Armor War Group considerable autonomy. They can collect taxes on their own and manage the imperial forces in the entire Princess Star Region. As long as the imperial taxes are paid, the rest will be managed by Iron Armor himself.

Even the multiple warbands active in the Princess Star Region let Iron Armor be the leader, who can coordinate and coordinate operations.

So far, the Iron Armor Warband has become the actual master of the Princess Star Region.

The Iron Armor Warband did a good job. They blocked the continuous expansion of the Void Zerg and paid the full amount of imperial taxes.

If things only went to this point, the Iron Armor Warband would undoubtedly be a great loyal and meritorious official of the Empire.

However, this matter soon exposed some inside stories.

The Iron Armor Warband did not pay so much tax at all. The so-called “full amount” of tax payment in the Princess Star Region was actually a false account. They increased the losses caused by the Void Zerg by more than ten times, and intercepted 80% of the taxes that should have been paid in the star region by lowering the development degree and concealing population verification.

On this basis, they also exaggerated the scale of the battle with the Zerg, constantly asking the Empire for money, people and supplies, and said that they could not stop them if they were not given. Then, they would really open up part of the defense line, let the Void Zerg rush out, and go to the outer star field to make trouble, forcing the Empire to really give money.

The gene seed tax they handed in was also problematic. The number of seeds given was in line with the level of a warband of about 800 or 900 people, but in fact, they “overproduced” a lot. According to reports, the Ironclad Warband had at least 6,000 Space Marines on the eve of the Bauhinia Rebellion.

The Empire has restrictions on the size of the warband, which must not exceed 1,000 people. 6,000 Space Marines, this is the size of six warbands.

What’s more, they have also trained a large number of mortal auxiliary troops who are only loyal to them.

This is a standard behavior of nurturing the enemy for self-protection.

And it was the Bauhinia Warband that exposed all this.

Bauhinia is also in the Imperial Star Region, but they have some old grudges with the Ironclad Warband. Now they are asked to obey the command of the Ironclad, which is a bit difficult to accept.

If it were just that, for the sake of the overall situation and the orders of the Empire, they would have just held their noses and endured it. But the key is that the Iron Armored Chapter is not kind, and they often withhold their resources and supplies, and always make them fight difficult battles.

This hatred is getting bigger and bigger.

Bauhinia is inside the Imperial Star Region. After a long time, they have some evidence of the Iron Armored Chapter’s actions, and then they directly stab Holy Terra and have an armed conflict with the Iron Armored Chapter.

Bauhinia cannot fight against the Iron Armored Chapter, which is much larger than them, not to mention that there are three other chapters that stand with the Iron Armored.

So, they began to mobilize people. It was also at this stage that the Phoenix, who had a good relationship with them, was mobilized to help.

But at this point, the situation is actually not bad. It only stays at an armed conflict. Turning a blind eye can’t be considered a civil war.

However, Holy Terra’s next action intensified the situation.

The behavior of the Iron Armored Chapter is certainly not something the Imperial government is happy to see.

If you do something small, it’s fine because you can really handle things on your own. However, if you do it too big, you will save 80% of the tax revenue of a star sector. If you have 1,800 extra people, you can tolerate it when you are in a wartime state, but if you have 6,000 extra people, plus there are three regiments standing with you, with a total of nearly 10,000 Space Marines, it is really inappropriate to set up an independent kingdom here.

Therefore, the Empire determined that the Iron Armor’s behavior was a rebellion, and restored the Imperial tax within a time limit. It also required the Iron Armor to be split into six regiments and accept the Empire’s dispatch to other places.

Bauhinia, Phoenix, and another “Star Breaker Blade” regiment that was shaken in were the supervisors.

The Iron Armor was also not happy, and directly determined that this matter was targeted and was nonsense, and the traitor was on Terra.

They opened the defense line, allowing some Void Zerg to rush out. At the same time, they completely blocked the Empress Star Region and multiple surrounding star regions, and did not allow any Imperial ships to pass through the Empress Star Region. Moreover, within the star field, a comprehensive purge was carried out against Bauhinia, Phoenix, and Star Breaker.

This caused a big disturbance.

The incident that affected multiple star regions had a great impact on the Empire’s taxation, trade, and navigation in this area. The Void Zerg were rampaging, and Iron Armor followed behind them. In the name of chasing and fighting the Void Zerg, they took over and even looted many planets, and even requisitioned many materials from the Empire’s taxation fleet.

In the Imperial Star Region, Bauhinia, Phoenix, and Starbreaker were no match for Iron Armor. They were not as numerous as them, and the key was that they had raised a large and very elite mortal auxiliary army for so many years. The three regiments lost the support of the Empire and could only deploy some planetary defense forces under their control. The quality was very different and they could not win at all.

Things had come to this point and it was almost impossible to end.

Did they really have to fight an Imperial civil war during the preparations for the Solar Expedition?

It was not that they could not win, but at least they would have to deploy nearly ten more loyal regiments, plus countless Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy fleets, to settle this matter. Next, they had to deal with the rampant Void Zerg, and then they had to leave enough forces to block the Void Wormholes that kept popping up in the Princess Star Domain.

After evaluation, the cost was too high.

Just at this time, a Terra official was ordered to go to the Iron Armored Corps. With superb diplomatic means, he persuaded the Iron Armored Corps to stop.

The Empire would not split them up; the Imperial tax in the Princess Star Domain would increase a little, but not too much; the places they should guard would still be handed over to them; the Empire would still provide them with reinforcements and supplies; the Empire would also withdraw its decision on the Iron Armored Corps’ rebellion…

The Iron Armored Corps accepted these conditions.

If the Iron Armored Corps was not a traitor, who was?

Someone had to be responsible.

At the request of the Iron Armored Corps, the Bauhinia took the blame. This rebellion was clearly the Iron Armored Corps, but in the official records, it became the “Bauhinia Rebellion.”

They framed the “loyal” Iron Armor and took the initiative to launch an attack, which led to the collapse of the Zerg defense line, resulting in this incident that affected several star fields and even plunged the Spider Web into a crisis.

The Bauhinia was completely destroyed in the “suppression” battle of the Iron Armor.

The Phoenix and Starbreaker were released and sentenced to the Atonement Expedition. The Starbreaker was completely wiped out when the Atonement Expedition reached sixty years; the Phoenix survived the hundred-year expedition, but only seven people were left until they met Gu Hang.

This is the whole process of the “Bauhinia Rebellion”.

Now, the Iron Armor is still a major overlord in the Spider Web, with strong soldiers and horses, its own independent small kingdom, and a heroic warband against the Void Zerg.

As for the warbands that opposed them, except for the Phoenix, which had a special situation, all the other warbands were wiped out.

Gu Hang actually thought about this occasionally.

Originally, the Alliance and the Iron Armored Legion had no major connection. Although the Eastern Space Domain and the Spider Web Space Domain are adjacent, in terms of star domains, the Dragon Eagle and the Princess are not close. They have to cross at least three star domains in between before they can connect.

Unless the Alliance expands to an outrageous extent, it should not be able to touch the Princess Star Domain in a short time;

but another problem cannot be ignored: if the Void Zerg problem in the Princess Star Domain breaks out, whether the Iron Armor can no longer stop it or they are going to do something weird again, and the scale expands to an outrageous situation, then the Dragon Eagle Star Domain may be affected.

But the probability should not be high. The incident a hundred years ago was not a small one. It did rush through three star domains, and it took a lot of effort to eliminate it in the end, but the direction did not come to the Dragon Eagle Star Domain.

However, although this is the normal situation, if the Phoenix revives again, what will the Iron Armored Legion do?

Gu Hang’s understanding of this legion all comes from the report of the Bauhinia Rebellion. Judging from what happened in those years, Gu Hang felt that this war group had no bottom line. Moreover, they had a vengeful character and treated their enemies cruelly. If

the Bauhinia was revived, Gu Hang had no doubt that the Iron Armor War Group would find a way to kill the Bauhinia even if they were separated by three star regions. The Phoenix

was a little better. After all, the Phoenix came to help in the war, and the hatred between it and the Iron Armor was not that great. But it was only slightly better than the Bauhinia. Gu Hang was still unsure about what the Iron Armor would think.

This might be a threat that needed to be taken seriously. The

same was true for the Ashes of the Dead, and it was even more urgent.

After all, the Iron Armor War Group was still in the Imperial Order. No matter how reckless they were, they could not completely abandon the rules. The Ashes of the Dead was a rebellious war group that had already defected to Chaos. They were not restricted by any rules and were full of malice.

According to some information revealed by Blevins during the interrogation on the ship, the Ash Dead have an “obsessive” attitude towards all the blood of the past Phoenix. After Blevins and his men broke out of Zhong Jihua’s encirclement, they were tracked and intercepted by the Ash Dead many times in the following years, and they ran away every time.

Zhong Jihua really wanted them to “join”, just because they had the same blood, it would be best if they all became dirty blood. If there were Phoenixes who were still loyal, or even getting better and better, Zhong Jihua would be very unhappy.

This was certainly Blevins’s guess, and there was a little bit of his deliberate exaggeration. But Gu Hang believed that it was indeed a high probability that the Ash Dead would be enemies of the Phoenix and then the Alliance.

The Phoenix’s attack on Juedus this time solved not only a small problem of the pirates, but also the problem of eight Phoenixes, and also put some future concerns in front of Gu Hang.

These things must be prevented.

How to prevent them?

It’s nothing more than making yourself stronger.

It may be a long way to go to fight against the Iron Armor. He is the overlord of a star field. A hundred years ago, he was reborn to an estimated 6,000 Space Marines. A hundred years have passed. Although they must have suffered some losses in the continuous fight against the invasion of the Void Zerg, they will definitely not be less than they were back then. In fact, the Empire does not know how many people the Iron Armor has now, and they are very vigilant about it.

He has more than a few thousand, and may even have tens of thousands of Space Marines. The most important thing is that he has unified the power of a star field, and his strength is equivalent to that of the mortal auxiliary army of the Astra Militarum, which is probably calculated in billions. The size of the naval fleet, according to the Dragon Eagle Star Field, is at least three to four times that of the Pegasus Fleet in its heyday.

The size of the Alliance today is incomparable.

But at least, this is a goal.

To be honest, Gu Hang still has some yearning for the Iron Armor Warband’s rule in the Imperial Lady Star Field. However, Gu Hang will not adopt a similar plan to implement it.

As for the Ash Dead, this may be relatively easier to deal with in terms of strength. The size of this warband is probably similar to that of the current Phoenix, which is about 200 to 300 people. What’s more, the Phoenix has the support of the Alliance.

But the trouble with dealing with them is that the whereabouts of the rebellious warbands are even more unpredictable, and they have no base or nest, so they can’t be found. Even though Martins now hopes to find the Ash Dead and eliminate these real shame of the Phoenix, but… there is no condition.

To deal with them, we can only passively defend.

A direct confrontation is not a problem, but the problem is that Gu Hang doesn’t know when, where, and in what way their threat will come, so it is not easy to prevent.

In this case, Gu Hang decided to invest a little more power in the next period of time to strengthen the Phoenix Warband.

The best way to fight against Chaos Space Marines is of course loyal Space Marines.

When they are not stupid enough to confront the huge size of the Alliance head-on, they will most likely use some means of unrestricted operations and special operations. The Alliance must have the corresponding power to fight back.

…

After thinking about the two possible threats in the future for a while, Gu Hang casually dealt with the matters about the Juetu Star.

When Martins led Blevins and others to leave Juedus, the Alliance left about 20,000 Star Army soldiers from the Angry Bear Legion to control the capital of Juedus.

But in fact, Gu Hang did not intend to bring Juedus under the direct rule of the Alliance.

The Alliance’s power is not a big problem in the Tianma Star Region. Gu Hang is now the head of the Tianma Star Region. But if it is to expand beyond the Tianma Star Region, it will be a very sensitive political event, which will cause some consequences that Gu Hang does not want to see. It’s not

that he has no plan for this, but if he wants to do it, he may lack some opportunities.

The key is that if there is really a particularly significant benefit, Gu Hang will do it at the risk. But obviously, the situation of Juedus and the benefits it can bring are obviously not equal to the risks.

The minerals on that planet have not been explored yet, but I think there won’t be too many, or they are not precious, otherwise it would not be like this now; there are also some necessary conditions for developing industry. It is neither a place close to the market, nor a place with a particularly large population, nor a place with rich resources.

Gu Hang felt that it was unnecessary to start a war for Juetu Star, which barely supported 200 million people by relying on nomadism and agriculture.

The conditions of Juetu Star might not be as good as those of the original Wrathful Owl Star. Although Wrathful Owl Star had a small population at the beginning and was still a post-war wasteland, it at least had the natural environment of Qinggu District, where the Wrathful Owl Star was developed, and precious resources such as the Waste Energy Storm.

Moreover, Gu Hang had no choice when he invested resources to build Wrathful Owl Star. He started his career here and had no choice. Now that he

has a choice, Gu Hang does not think that it is a good choice to take Juetu Star and spend a lot of money to develop it.

However, not taking it under the direct rule of the Alliance does not mean that there are no other ways.

The Governor is dead, and the crime is ready. If the traitorous Space Marine is removed, the rest is enough for Gu Hang to hang him.

Then, he will support a new Governor of Juetu Star, who will not join the Alliance, but can sign some cooperation agreements with the planets under the Alliance.

The food and biological products produced by the nomadic groups there are valuable, and the alliance can also export some cheap industrial products, such as daily necessities, furniture and home appliances, which are very despised by the imperial tax, in exchange for these things.

It is good to be a small grain production base.

Then, some technology can be overflowed a little, which can be used to better carry out the breeding industry and primary processing industry, which will also stimulate the development of Jue Tu Xing.

In general, this is a good thing for everyone – the benefits of the alliance are greater, but not to the point of sucking blood.

At the same time, the alliance’s control over Jue Tu Xing will be improved to a very high level. Although it has not joined the alliance, it is better than joining.

In the future, if the situation changes, Gu Hang can ask Jue Tu Xing to submit an application to join the alliance at any time when he needs it. Once approved, it’s done.

—————— Wish

you all a happy new year first! I

wish you all a happy new year!

This chapter is 7.2k words, and it’s updated!

I know I still owe the leader an extra chapter, and I still owe 25k. In addition, I was on a business trip and sick for three days last month, and I have to pay back 12k, a total of 37k.

Today is an extra chapter of 3k, and I still owe 34.

I was actually quite busy during the Chinese New Year, but I tried my best to write!

(End of this chapter)