Start with Planetary Governor

Chapter 701, Military Merits

The biggest topic of the meeting was over.

The mopping-up work was arranged and each unit received relevant combat tasks.

These orders were jointly issued by the three commanders of the Southern, Western and Northern Fronts.

That is the names of Gu Hang, Lu Salilus, and Xi Rui.

Among them, Gu Hang's name was at the top, symbolizing his highest status in the coalition after the merger. At the same time, the order signed by the three commanders-in-chief at the same time had the highest effectiveness in the entire imperial coalition.

The troops who received the order had nothing to say but to get to work.

However, at the end of the meeting, Gu Hang mentioned another thing.

Although it was just the beginning and mentioned briefly without elaborating on it, this matter itself is enough to make people care about it.

What Gu Hang mentioned was that it was time to submit a battle report to Holy Terra.

To translate it, it means reporting merit.

This is what everyone cares about.

When they came to fight, they all said they accepted the call of the empire and were loyal to it, but in fact, they all had political demands.

Whether it was the Space Marines, the Navy, the Astra Militarum, the defense forces of each planet, or the Imperial Chamber of Commerce’s escort armed fleet...

That's all.

Participate in the war, gain military merit, accumulate fame... return to your own territory and get what you deserve, this is what everyone expects.

Whether this thing is an official position, specific resources, or political status... in short, it is what these political creatures desire.

However, Gu Hang has always had one thing in mind: victory and the fruits of victory are not the same thing.

It is not uncommon to see heroes shed blood and tears, no matter where or when.

Gu Hang didn't know whether these people who won the battle could really get what they wanted when they returned.

They are not his people, so he can neither control them nor does he want to.

All he could do was to record every battle truthfully and impartially in the battle reports submitted to Holy Terra, including who participated, what results were achieved, and how much sacrifice was made...

That's it.

As for what specific benefits they will gain from this military achievement officially recognized by the empire, it depends on their personal luck and means.

Gu Hang can only take care of himself.

He was very clear about what he wanted.

It is also quite earthy and primitive.

That is population, resources and land.

Arranged in order of importance.

To go further, in this war against the Iron Armor, which then evolved into a war against the Void Zerg, all the places conquered by the Alliance will be handed over to the Alliance.

These include the Menghe Star Region, which was under the management of the Alliance in the early stages of the war, the Aozhua Star Region, which was taken over in the middle stages of the war, and the Jingjie Star Region and Alfonzo Star Region, which were taken over by the Alliance in the late stages of the war.

By then, the Alliance will have direct territory spanning two cosmic domains, totaling five star fields.

Nearly four thousand worlds, ten trillion people.

This is the ideal map in Gu Hang’s mind.

With the [Technology Tree] panel and enough time, Gu Hang can raise the development here to a considerable level.

Only then, he, as a local lord, would have enough confidence.

He hadn't figured out what he was going to do with this confidence. However, farming and providing a good life for 10 trillion people was a huge benefit in itself. As for the strong military force supported by developed productivity, it was used to wipe out various external and internal threats, and would never threaten the stability of Holy Terra or even the entire human empire. On the contrary, a strong alliance would be a strong pillar to maintain the stability of the empire.

Well... the only question is, does Holy Terra believe this?
From an objective point of view, Gu Hang felt not very optimistic.

For general local forces, as long as they pay the imperial taxes honestly, the empire will generally not interfere and let them do whatever they want.

But that only applies to general forces.

The alliance is no longer an ordinary force.

If the occupied areas spanning five star fields were all given to the Alliance, then as a unified political entity, it would be too large.

Wouldn’t Holy Terra be mumbling in her heart?

You know, the lesson of Tiekai is still before our eyes.

How big is Iron Armor's core territory?

It’s nothing more than a star field and more than seven hundred worlds.

With this alone, they can continue to expand their influence to the surrounding areas, launch a rebellion, and create a war that sweeps across four cosmic domains.

The empire built the Western Front Legion twice, sent reinforcements to the Northern Front many times, and formed a new alliance on the Southern Front, which finally killed the Iron Knight.

So if the alliance really controls four thousand worlds, to what extent will Gu Hang expand his influence?

If one day the Alliance also starts a rebellion like Iron Armor, how much effort will it take to quell it?
Even... can it be pacified?
After this war, the Alliance's war strength and potential have been recognized by many parties. It has a Space Marine Chapter that is very close to the Alliance, its own starship production capabilities, the support of two Mechanicus, and the army's training and equipment levels are all excellent among the Star Army...

Isn't this a large iron armor?
If such a powerful alliance wanted to use military and economic power to expand its influence to the surrounding areas like the Iron Rage Stone did in the past, how many worlds would be willing to collude with the alliance?
To put it bluntly, if an alliance of that level rebelled, and the first wave of imperial troops sent to suppress the rebellion failed to defeat them, the alliance might be able to easily push back to the Magre Universe, and then push into the Central Territory. Is that possible?
Maybe it’s not high, but the masters on Holy Terra have just experienced a war that made them bleed a lot, and they certainly don’t want another big one.

Not even the risk itself.

They say that the imperial taxes can be paid on time and in the correct amount, but who can really say for sure about such a thing?

If a planetary governor says he doesn't want to pay taxes, Holy Terra doesn't even need to know, the sector will do it for you; if a sector unites and rebels to become an independent force to resist taxes, there is a special name for this, called a "pocket empire", and the star-field-level government has enough power to suppress it.

So if the Complete Alliance that controls five star fields rebels in the future and says that it will no longer pay taxes, what can Holy Terra do?
Can the Cosmic Domain government suppress it?

It's impossible. The Spider Web Universe can't even suppress a rebellion in a star field within its own territory.

Can we expect that the Spider Web Universe and the Eastern Universe will be able to suppress the alliance in the future?

Nonsense.

By then, the Empire might not even dare to turn against the Alliance.

Whether or not they can win the war is one thing. If they don't pay taxes, they will lose the tax revenue of 4,000 worlds. If there are 10 trillion people, roughly speaking, it will cost about 1 trillion tax coins per year. But if they have to go to war, how much money will it cost to destroy the alliance? A trillion? A quadrillion?

If we turn the Alliance-controlled area into a mess, we won't be able to collect taxes, and we may have to invest a lot in reconstruction...

It’s better not to fight.

With so many concerns, why not prevent these risks from happening in the first place?
Because of this, Gu Hang was not optimistic at all that he would be able to successfully take over the currently occupied area.

Even more, if we speculate more about the thoughts of the masters on Holy Terra, let alone allowing Gu Hang to keep five star fields, even the territory originally owned by the Alliance, that is, the Dragon Eagle Star Field, they may find a way to dismember it after the war.

What's wrong with Gu Hang being a combat hero? What's wrong with being the greatest contributor to the Battle of Iron Armor?
Are there not enough meritorious officials and heroes who were killed by the empire? In the eyes of Holy Terra, Gu Hang would probably be no different.

However, think about it the other way around.

Precisely because Gu Hang could think of these things, he had to make his demands to Holy Terra and further strengthen the power at hand.

It was useless to try to reason with him. It was also not feasible to use his own achievements to ask Holy Terra for what he deserved.

Only by showing off his muscles and appearing to have sufficient "united front value" can the empire feel that it is not worthwhile to fight him. After thinking about the pain, he can show that he can pay taxes steadily and even steadily improve the development and population of each world in the five major star fields - that means paying more taxes.

In this case, the value of the latter will be seen by the masters on Holy Terra.

Gu Hang is a person who can learn from history. The example of Tie Kai is right in front of him.

In his opinion, the biggest mistake of Iron Armor was that they had basically achieved the former and possessed the "united front value", but they did not demonstrate the latter, that is, they did not provide enough benefits to Holy Terra. In fact, they were still expanding and devouring the resources of the central empire.

That's unacceptable.

Of course, now that things have come to this, Gu Hang knows that Tie Kai went crazy because they were really crazy and had been controlled by the Queen of Insects. This explains all their actions.

But if it were him, Gu Hang decided to take a path whose first half was similar to Iron Armor, but whose second half was different from Iron Armor.

Gu Hang knew that the conflict between himself and Holy Terra was like a huge gully, blocking the development path of the alliance. He knew that if he didn't find a way to resolve it, the future of the alliance would be full of variables.

After careful consideration, Gu Hang came up with some ideas:
First of all, the first point is to develop sufficiently strong local forces to make the empire afraid to act rashly.

This is fundamental.

Otherwise, being weak will only become an excuse to be slaughtered.

In addition, Gu Hang will make a lot of friends.

Tiejia had done this before. Norberto, who was once the Prime Minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs and one of the thirteen high lords, was Tiejia's "friend".

This is like the relationship between Gu Hang and Gallardo.

But that’s not enough.

We need more friends.

His first thought was to strengthen cooperation with the Space Marine Chapters, which held a special status in the Imperium. Although their loyalty was first and foremost to the Emperor, they had established a deep camaraderie with the Alliance over their long years of fighting alongside it.

This includes Salilius's Ortopis Chapter, Black Crusaders Chapter, and Phoenix Chapter.

These three are all large and influential chapters. They are either the direct chapters of the Terra government, or the top chapters that have "legally survived", or the start-up chapters.

The Alliance saved their lives.

Especially the favor to Phoenix is ​​particularly heavy.

Without Gu Hang, even if the Phoenix Regiment was not destroyed, it would be almost the same.

The chapter commander had to die, two hundred soldiers had to die, and even the Queen of Glory-class battleships left over from the Legion era had to be lost.

For this favor, not to mention asking Phoenix to work like a slave in the future, but treating me as a close brother, there should be no problem, right?

A startup group has a lot of say.

As for friends, there are also all the parties made during this war.

What about the Inquisition, the Sisters of Battle, the Imperial Navy, the Solar Legion of the Astra Militarum, the Legion of the Firstborn, the Legion of the Death...

There will always be some human favors to a certain extent.

By then, the network of contacts that the alliance has established within the empire will surely be stronger than iron armor.

This means that before things get to the point of falling out, rebellion, war, and they are forced to choose sides, these people will speak for the alliance, act as brake pads, and represent another dimension of the alliance's "united front values."

(End of this chapter)