Chapter 750, Gaoling Chairman's Seat
After the death of the Sun Lord, Qi Bodu gradually centralized power and is now the de facto prime minister of the empire.
In the history of the empire, there were not many prime ministers like this. It was not easy for a centralizer to emerge in the power structure of the empire. There have been many such prime ministers in history, but on the scale of 10,000 years, they were not considered long in general.
Normally, the prime minister has control over a certain number of government departments. In theory, the four prime ministers are his subordinates, but often powerful departments, especially the military and justice departments, are out of the prime minister's control. A strong prime minister can often pose a great challenge to the prime minister's authority.
This is just the situation of the imperial government. Most prime ministers in history may not be able to completely deal with it, not to mention the many high-ranking chairmanships outside of government departments, each of which represents a powerful independent political faction.
It is not uncommon for some prime ministers to become complete figureheads and be treated as mascots by some powerful departments within the government.
It was not easy for Qi Bodu to reach this point today.
At present, he has basically consolidated the power of the Imperial government. Not to mention the four major prime ministerial departments, the two major military departments, such as the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Astra Militarum, are also under his control.
These alone account for seven of the thirteen high-ranking leadership seats.
In addition, with Yasdai who was supported by him, there are eight seats.
Already an absolute majority in the Supreme Council.
Not to mention, other high lords, even those from Mars, the Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition, the Court of Assassins and the like, must all be respectful to Qi Bo Du under the current situation.
It is no exaggeration to say that he is a centralized prime minister, a feat rarely achieved.
However, within the political situation of the empire, even if one reaches a position like the Lord of the Sun, there is no shortage of challengers, let alone Qi Bodu.
Once a faction becomes large, new factions will be divided within it due to interests and positions. This is inevitable and is also the most important thing that Qi Bodu has to deal with.
This is where the debate over whether the alliance should continue lies.
Outside of his own faction, Mars has always been independent and strong, with a relatively closed internal environment, making it difficult to get involved; as for the Inquisition, although it is not very obedient, it will still step up when necessary and will not challenge Qi Boduo's authority.
Qi Bodu treated these two families with courtesy for the time being.
But the state religion poses the greatest challenge to Zebedee.
Of course, although it is said to be the largest, in fact, the difference in strength between the two sides in the imperial political arena is still quite large. It's just that there are many contradictions, and the state religion's small actions in private are quite frequent.
To be honest, the state religion is not an easy target to deal with. After being weakened by some historical factors, the strength of the state religion has long been far inferior to the period when the Pope could also serve as the Prime Minister of the Empire.
However, this does not prevent them from still being the spiritual supreme rulers of the vast majority of the people in the empire today.
His Holiness the Pope is in the religious world of Minstoria all year round, but he also often comes to Holy Terra. Every time he comes, he always attracts a large crowd.
In fact, the state religion does not seem to have direct control over any specific power. However, no one can underestimate them. They do not collect taxes directly, but everyone from the dignitaries to the common people are willing to donate money to the state religion; the legions, even archbishops and bishops, will follow the clergy to kill the rebels with a call for a holy war.
The State Church also has very close cooperation with the major inquisitions. A large number of combat nuns obey the orders of both.
Qi Bodu and the current Pope, Innocent XVIII, do not have a very good relationship. They have had many conflicts in the High Lords' Council. The imperial government is also very dissatisfied with the state religion's independence and the several so-called "holy wars" launched by the legions and local princes.
There has always been a lot of open and covert fighting between the two sides.
However, Qi Bodu did not expect that the extent of the state religion's actions would be so shocking.
At the same time, he was also a little confused.
So what is the current situation of Asdai? Has he been corrupted by the aliens, or has he been won over by the state religion?
These two pieces of information are very contradictory.
According to the information Gu Hang obtained during the interrogation, these two things seemed to exist at the same time.
The Dark Eldar are quite active in the Devouring Stars Realm. Their high-level spies have been persistently infiltrating the region's government on a large scale, with considerable results.
The leader is the top family among the Dark Eldar - Blood Curse.
He belongs to the same family as the one who was caught by the Alliance in the Spider Web Universe.
Gu Hang still remembered that they had a long-term goal - to besiege and harass the Infinite War Group.
As for Yasdai being wooed by the State Church, this happened in a more recent period of time. It would be a pity to expose that the State Church also had some special mysterious methods, and the Dark Eldar did not interfere in this process. Yasdai accepted the State Church's solicitation, and in accordance with the State Church's intentions, issued an order to the Assassin Court to assassinate Gu Hang.
What is the purpose?
It was not reflected in the interrogation results, but Gu Hang could roughly guess it and told Qi Bodu something with exaggeration.
Their core purpose in doing so is to create a rift between the alliance and the central empire.
They knew clearly that the assassination attempt would not succeed.
The Assassin's Court is not stupid.
Even if the Assassin's Court did the work, they might not be able to actually assassinate the person.
But once this matter is exposed, there will be several effects.
First, would Gu Hang distrust the Imperial Central Government? After the assassination, if he received an order from the Imperial Central Government to come to Holy Terra alone, would he dare to come?
Second, after the assassination incident was made a big deal by Gallardo in the Supreme Council, the already not-so-bright prospects of the "Alliance Plan" were cast even further into doubt.
Third, as long as the mastermind of the assassination is not exposed, the mystery of who this person is will always exist. Among them, Luo Fei is the most likely suspect. This is analyzed from the perspective of motivation. Even if there is no evidence, Gallardo has often used this matter to make sarcastic remarks at the Supreme Council, which will cause internal divisions in Qi Bodu's political faction.
Some of these goals were effective, while others were useless.
Especially when Gu Hang personally came to Holy Terra and forcefully promoted the "Alliance Plan", many problems were solved.
But so what?
The cost of doing something is not high, for the state religion and Yasdai.
The Assassins' Court would never betray them out of duty and the traditions on which they depend.
As long as there are no problems on their side and the news doesn't leak out, there is almost no cost.
But, something went wrong.
The state religion probably didn't know that Yasdai, whom they had won over, or Yasdai's confidant Yu Jinwen, had been secretly controlled by the Dark Eldar.
What is even more incredible is how did Cawl, the Grand Sage of the Mechanicus, know about this?
Gu Hang was also very curious.
But when he told Gu Hang the news, and Gu Hang took personal action to expose the whole incident to the light, the biggest trouble for the state religion came.
Originally it was just a small underhanded trick, but since you dare to do it, you must be prepared to cause a huge uproar after it is exposed.
Is the state religion ready for this?
Then it has nothing to do with Gu Hang.
In fact, Gu Hang doesn’t care that much about the struggle between the Pope and the Prime Minister.
He now regards himself as the Prime Minister's disciple, and keeps saying that he follows the orders of Governor Qi Bo, but it is pure nonsense.
But, you can fight as much as you want, but don't use me as a tool for your struggle.
Whoever involves me, I will kill him!
This is Gu Hang’s first and biggest goal.
He is already very strong as an individual, but the alliance he represents is not strong enough on the stage of the entire empire. When he is weak, it is necessary to show that he is not easy to mess with.
Appearing too weak is not being low-key, but asking for trouble.
If you don't fight back when someone causes trouble, you don't know how many people will want to use the alliance as a handy tool in the future.
You have to beat him so hard that it hurts!
Just reach out and chop!
Goals other than the first time can actually be considered as follow-up matters.
Yasdai's resignation was inevitable. Even Gu Hang, who controlled the Spider Web Universe and was a neighbor of the Devouring Star Universe, had to raise some war preparedness and vigilance to prevent Yasdai from taking desperate measures.
Gu Hang estimated that he couldn't jump up.
If he only flirts with the state religion, there may be some risks, but the main battlefield is probably the exchange of interests in the political arena. If Innocent XVIII is determined to protect him, it will be difficult to keep his position as high lord, but he may be able to keep his position as chairman of the universe.
In this case, Yasdai still has the potential to overturn the table in the Star-Swallowing Universe, which will make Holy Terra hesitate.
However, if the Dark Eldar’s corruption is added, then it can’t be saved, and the ability to overturn the table is also very low. Even if the Dark Eldar infiltrate the Cosmic Domain government, as long as everyone from the military to the government to the grassroots people is not corrupt, it is almost impossible for the human empire’s soldiers and civilians to arm themselves and start a war with the imperial officials under the leadership of the aliens.
In this regard, the parasitic infection of the Void Zerg and the soul corruption of the Chaos Cult are both very scary things. Once they are formed, they can really corrupt billions of people on an entire planet.
The Dark Eldar's level of covert corruption of single key figures is stronger and more covert, but they do not have the means to carry out such large-scale corruption.
Although the State Religion fought against Qi Bodu, it would not assist them in deceiving the military and civilians and launching a rebellion when the upper echelons of the Devouring Star Universe were corrupted.
Of course, it is difficult to say for sure. What if there are powerful officials among the corrupted senior officials who can deceive the middle and lower levels, or even the general public, into following their lead? What if there are also high-level officials in the state religion system of the Devouring Star Universe who are corrupt? What if...
It's going to be complicated.
But fortunately, the Imperial Guards said they would intervene directly. I estimate that there must be dozens of people going. Accompanying them are the soldiers of the Imperial Palace Guards.
The so-called Forbidden Palace Guards refer to the mortal auxiliary troops trained by the Imperial Guards themselves. No matter how powerful the Imperial Guards are, they only have tens of thousands of people, and the scope they can control is limited. Fixed garrisons can only be done in key positions. The Imperial Palace is called a palace, but in fact it is a magnificent complex covering the largest and highest roof of the world plateau in Holy Terra. Ten thousand people cannot cover it all.
Just as the Space Marines need Auxilia, so do the Custodes.
To sum up, Gu Hang concluded that Yasdai could not create a big wave.
The alliance is prepared for war just in case.
Now that Yasdai has stepped down, who will take over?
Gu Hang was actually more interested in the position of Chairman of the Star-Swallowing Universe, but he knew it was impossible.
Under the premise of preserving the alliance, letting him actually control the Spider Web Universe was already a huge political price and took a lot of effort to get it done. If he wanted to take over the Star Devouring Universe, that would be impossible no matter what.
So, we had to settle for the next best thing.
If you can't eat the real fat, it's okay to eat some light meat.
The seat of the high lord.
This is also difficult, but relatively speaking not impossible.
What's more, there is the Martian sect.
Although, up to now, Gu Hang still has some concerns about Kaul's prediction and the price he will have to pay. However, one is a long-term thing, which may be good or bad, and the other is the meat in front of him in the near future, so he might as well take a bite first.
Whether Mars really supports it or not, it’s up to them. Just fight for it with a normal attitude and normal procedures, and you won’t lose anything.
Gu Hang does not intend to invest a large amount of money in it, and the reason is obvious.
If it is a powerful and completely independent high-ranking chairmanship, then of course it is of extraordinary value. It can directly influence the policies of the central government of the empire and gain many benefits for his alliance and the Spider Web Universe.
However, he estimated that even with Mars' support, he would still need Qi Bodu's approval. Otherwise, this matter would become a matter of Mars and the Prime Minister's faction forcing things to happen.
After all, the person who used to hold this position, Yasdai, belonged to the Qibodu faction.
No matter how powerful Mars is, it would be extremely difficult for him to snatch the position of high leader chairman from Qi Bodu in the Supreme Council.
And even if he succeeds, Gu Hang will be firmly marked with the mark of the Martian sect.
This was something Gu Hang was not willing to see.
Mars is too far away and too isolated in the political environment of the empire, and has too little to offer.
Still needs Qi Bodu's approval.
But will he nod?
…
"Do you want to run for high lord?" Qi Bodu, who was in deep thought, was suddenly awakened by Gu Hang's voice.
He was immediately amused, and even the gloomy mood that Yasdai was in after being wooed by the state religion and corrupted by the dark elves was dispelled.
It was as if Gu Hang told him a very funny joke.
It is true that Yasde will definitely go down, and the next question will be who will replace him.
However, even if Qi Bodu thought of a hundred people, he would not think of Gu Hang as the candidate.
The reason is simple, Gu Hang is not one of his.
(End of this chapter)
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