Chapter 488, It’s time for him to step down
Gu Hang was a little surprised at Ou Juren's arrival.
From the previous dinner, Gu Hang could certainly see that after Gallardo came to the heart of the empire, he made quite a stir and formed or joined a powerful political faction. Otherwise, his own promotion would not have been possible so quickly.
However, now that he discovered that the leader of this faction was Ou Juren, it was beyond his initial expectations.
It is really awesome to be able to bring in a top official like Ou Juren.
From the imperial government's propaganda and policy making in various places, Gu Hang roughly understood that Ou Juren was an upright and impartial person. And the position of Prime Minister of the Ministry of Justice also meant a very high authority.
Among the four major institutions in the Empire that can directly lead to the position of High Chairman of the Supreme Council, the work of the Ministry of Justice is mainly to ensure the security and stability of each planet in the boundless territory of the Empire and the law-abidingness of the inhabited world, similar to the Supreme Police Department.
The Arbites also serve as representatives of the Terran High Council to adjudicate conflicts between regional governors and ensure their loyalty.
The Chancellor of the Ministry of Justice, as a high lord with direct access to a seat in the Imperial Senate, is responsible for staying in the Grand Court of the Ministry of Justice on Terra and planning overall law enforcement policies.
In fact, not all Imperial law enforcers are subordinate to the Ministry of Justice. The relationship between the Ministry of Justice and the local law enforcement agencies of each planet is similar to a cooperative relationship, rather than a superior-subordinate relationship. Only in the two levels of government, the star domain and the universe domain, will the Ministry of Justice's agencies and corresponding violence agencies be directly arranged, and at the star region level, the Ministry of Justice liaison officers and offices are arranged.
If the case only involves violation of the laws of the local planet, it will be handed over to the local police - that is, the planetary government or the planetary governor. Only cases involving interstellar crimes or violations of imperial laws will be reported to the liaison officer of the Ministry of Justice in the local star region. The job of this liaison officer is generally to supervise the work of local law enforcement agencies. When serious interstellar crimes occur, the liaison officer will first assess the situation and mobilize the police force of the star region or higher level Ministry of Justice to deal with it.
Generally, the regional law enforcement agencies of the Empire do not want to see the Ministry of Justice get involved in the investigation, because it often means that they either messed up or got into big trouble. If they messed up, the Ministry of Justice would clean up the local police station while cleaning up the criminals; if they got into big trouble, they would also be finished.
What's even more terrible is that the Ministry of Justice may report the case to the Inquisition, and the Inquisitor will usually allow law enforcers to get away one step ahead of the criminals.
However, for example, Holy Terra and some other important planets of the Empire, the Ministry of Justice will actually be in charge of their law and order to ensure that the rulers of the planets in the jurisdiction abide by the laws of the Empire and supervise the local law enforcement officers to maintain order. If a riot occurs on the planet, the Ministry of Justice can issue a martial law order and dispatch police to control the situation until the situation subsides or the Imperial Guard takes over. The Ministry of Justice has law enforcement authority over most people in the Empire. With the exception of Space Marines, Inquisitors and Navigator families, they can arrest, interrogate and execute almost anyone in the jurisdiction.
The core of the Ministry of Justice’s authority lies in: tax arrears and heresy.
Other matters such as smuggling, organized crime, subversion and treason should be handled by local governments.
These two are the only things that the Ministry of Justice cannot allow.
But there is a lot to say about these two things.
Tax arrears are fine, this is the "core business" of the Ministry of Justice. When the Taxation Department fails to collect taxes, whether it is the execution of the planetary governor or the use of violence to ensure the tax results, it is the Ministry of Justice. They have their own violent agencies. The elite police officers of the Ministry of Justice have weapons such as laser guns and grenade guns, storm shields, and power weapons. They have riot control armored vehicles, police tanks, and police fighters when they go out. There are also special legal cruisers in space.
To be honest, the armed police officers of the Ministry of Justice, except for their relatively small number and lack of artillery support due to the special nature of their work and tasks, are better at fighting than ordinary Astra Militarum troops, especially in small-scale conflicts.
Not to mention the local defense forces.
What's more, the work of the Ministry of Justice usually does not reach the point of fighting, but is more inclined towards policing, suppression, and planetary security.
And if the police forces of the Ministry of Justice cannot handle the problem, they can of course ask for help, usually the Astra Militarum or the Imperial Navy.
However, relatively speaking, dealing with heresy is a somewhat embarrassing matter.
Heresy is a typical "pocket crime" that can be pinned on almost anyone in any way. On the surface, the only crimes that will be seriously investigated are heresy and tax arrears, but in fact, heresy alone can be used for almost anything, and whether to arrest someone depends entirely on the mood of the Ministry of Justice.
It seems like such great power, but in reality it is not.
As one of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Justice, investigating heresy is much more difficult than imagined. Not to mention the small things that are too lazy to deal with, a large proportion of the major things that are really worth the Ministry of Justice's attention will go wrong. The entire case investigation process can easily turn from a suspenseful police and gangster film into a horror film involving chaos cults, green-skinned killers, and some terrifying alien creatures.
However, this part of the function has been largely diverted to various other institutions in the Empire. The Inquisition is also a professional counterpart. When the situation gets serious and a war is needed, the regular army such as the Astra Militarum and the Navy will come, and the Space Marines will also come when necessary. When the Mechanicus and the Ecclesiarchy encounter similar things, they will also send forces to intervene...
Everyone can interfere in the biggest function of the Ministry of Law, and some even do a better job than the Ministry of Law. Who can we turn to for justice?
But in fact, this whole process is not very conflicting. In fact, a large number of cult activities, whether Chaos or alien behavior, will not alarm the Space Marines and the Inquisition before they become a trend. At this time, the Ministry of Justice will handle it. If the Ministry of Justice can't handle it, then it will be a big deal. At this time, the Ministry of Justice is often the last line of defense in the area. It needs to work hard to fight back and maintain the situation as much as possible, waiting for the support of the Space Marines or the Inquisition.
They do the most and the most trivial work, and when something big happens they become the background board and the footnote of others' success... From this perspective, the legal department is still a bit miserable.
As an ambitious Prime Minister of Justice who wants to do something, he will not easily tolerate such things continuing for a long time.
At least, that's how Gu Hang felt during the meeting.
This group, headed by the Prime Minister of the Ministry of Justice and High Lord Ou Juren, is undoubtedly a powerful political faction in the central government of the empire. Ou Juren alone, as one of the people standing at the top of the empire's power, is already very strong. What's more, there is also a Deputy Prime Minister of the Ministry of Taxation and Gallardo, the Executive Minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs. The remaining dozen people are at least senior committee members.
Combined together, they are able to mobilize forces from across the various agencies of the central government and act toward their common governing goals and interests.
As a political faction, the group headed by Ou Juren had a core idea, which Gu Hang saw: to take back power and centralize the government.
This centralization is not reflected in the relationship between the central and local governments, but is manifested between the government and various other messy political organizations within the empire.
Can't our Ministry of Justice do the work of the judge? If we have enough resources, we can do it too!
Does the Ministry of Taxation need to allocate so much money to the Inquisition and the Space Marines? The same is true for the Astra Militarum and the Navy Fleet, which have quite independent war decisions.
Can the Ministry of Military Affairs gather as many military forces as possible from various imperial powers and bring them under the unified command of the empire's central government?
Can the Ministry of Government Affairs implement personnel appointments and development strategy formulation in every place?
These are the general directions that Gu Hang heard.
Of course, it is impossible to realize it. Not to mention that there are other political factions in the central government of the empire, with various political ideas and demands. Even if all the masters of the central government of the empire unite and think in the same direction, it is extremely difficult to use their combined strength to deal with the objects they want to concentrate power on, such as the forging worlds, the war groups, and even the local powerful factions like Gu Hang.
They are not so naive. The specific strategies they discussed are all details, and they hope to be able to push them forward in the next period of time.
For example, the Ministry of Justice should allocate more budget for its police forces.
And although Gu Hang is a local power overall, he is actually the one they want to win over.
If you join us and become one of us, then your "local power" will be equal to our power, which is equal to the power of the central government.
After talking about several budgets and the positions of several important officials, their topic turned to Gu Hang.
"Gu Hang, you came in person this time, and your attitude is in place. With our full support, you will be awarded the rank of marshal in the upcoming awarding ceremony, and the rear admiral you recommended will be directly awarded the rank of admiral. It shouldn't be a problem. The corresponding military expansion plan and funding, as well as the tax deduction funding plan, should also be passed smoothly with our full support."
Ou Juren said these words to Gu Hang, and Gu Hang expressed his gratitude.
"No need for so much ceremony. Since you have joined us, we are friends. Friends should help each other. We will certainly help you get what you deserve for your outstanding performance in the Iron Teeth War. Not only that, we will also help your alliance resolve the threats brought by the Silver Tribunal and the Iron Fury Stone."
When he said this, Gu Hang became serious.
Marshal Angry Bear and Admiral Pegasus, as well as the supporting benefits, were his 'bottom line' for coming to Holy Terra this time; the things he was talking about now were the core of what he cared about.
At first, when Gallardo told him that he would solve these problems for him, he was a little skeptical.
But now, he seemed to understand.
This is not a case of 'you are one of us, so I help you', but a naked exchange of interests.
"'Iron Fury Stone' is undoubtedly a cancer within the empire, and they are becoming stronger and stronger under the connivance of some people." Ou Juren first determined, "This situation, it is time to put an end to it."
"Norberto, hehe..."
Ou Juren read out a name and then sneered.
Gu Hang knew who this Norberto was.
That was the Prime Minister of the Imperial Military Affairs Department, and Gallardo's immediate superior.
This man has made many achievements, but the way he got started was by "suppressing" the Bauhinia Rebellion with his mouth a hundred years ago. He persuaded the Iron Armored Regiment to stop expanding its operations, and at the same time, he also brought in the Silver Inquisition to take down the three regiments of Bauhinia, Starbreaker, and Phoenix.
"Nobel made a big mistake a hundred years ago, and the bigger mistake is that in the past hundred years, not only was he not punished for it, but he rose to prominence step by step, and even reached the position of Prime Minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs. After he reached a high position, he did not find a way to solve the problems he left behind, but instead allowed the situation to get worse."
"All parties in the empire are very wary of the 'Iron Fury Stone'. Now, it is time to deal with them."
"Gu Hang, you will have to take on a lot next."
Everyone's eyes turned to Gu Hang.
The price has come.
Ou Juren will help him solve the problems brought by the Silver Tribunal and the Fury of Flame, at least from a legal perspective.
With this guarantee, Gu Hang no longer needs to worry about being declared a treasonous person by the Silver Tribunal and the alliance will not become an illegal organization.
If the Silver Tribunal really did this, they would have missed their last chance and would definitely be counted on the side of the Iron Rage Stone by the various forces that Ou Juren mentioned as wanting to resolve the "Iron Rage Stone".
That would also be a devastating disaster for the Silver Tribunal.
This is a good opportunity to make a cut, and the Silver Faction will not miss it.
Even if they didn't catch him, the Empire would probably deny the Silver Tribunal's verdict immediately. In short, Gu Hang didn't need to worry.
At the same time, Gu Hang could also hear the implication of their words, that is, the "Alliance", the multi-star political entity that Gallardo had previously created with his own power, has now been "regularized". The Ministry of Justice should give him another document later to provide another layer of protection for the legal status of the Alliance.
The price of all this is that Gu Hang will be pushed to the front line to fight against the 'Iron Fury Stone'.
Will Gu Hang accept it?
certainly!
He was already on the front line.
Is there any chance he could get to the other side?
If he couldn't get out and was already caught in the whirlpool, Gu Hang would be stupid enough to stand on the side of Tie Nu Shi!
Let's not talk about past grudges, and just consider who is most likely to be the final winner, it won't be Iron Wrath Stone.
They have been arrogant for many years, and the Empire is afraid to take action; but when the Empire is really determined to solve this cancer, Gu Hang does not believe that the winner will be the Iron Armored Corps, which has made countless enemies.
Gu Hang nodded and said, "It is my duty!"
Gallardo clapped his hands suddenly and said excitedly, "If it weren't for that old Norberto, the position of vice prime minister would have been mine if Wang had stepped down! Since he is blocking the way and is so tactless, it's time for him to step down!"
————
Failed to add more chapters... It's too late when I get here, it will be daybreak if I write more.
I must start writing early tomorrow!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
