Chapter 752: This is the real deal
Gu Hang was waiting for the result of the meeting, and the topic of discussion was of course related to Yasdai.
In fact, this is not the first time a meeting has been held on this topic.
In the previous meeting, Yasdai had been stripped of his status as the High Lord of the Empire. At the same time, a delegation of envoys was sent, consisting of members from the Inquisition, the Imperial Government, and the State Church, to investigate and hold the case to account. The accompanying personnel were all elite, including the Inquisition's Hunter Group, Stormtroopers drawn from the elite of the Astra Militarum, and the State Church's Battle Sisters.
The total number exceeds 100,000.
A force of this size is definitely not enough to fight an interstellar war. However, looking at their personnel composition, we can also know that they are not going to fight, but a group of special operations teams.
The reason why such a "small" scale operation requires 100,000 people is that with a small-scale combat approach, the coverage area may have to be the entire world or even many planets.
Then it has to be of this scale.
If the situation in the Star-Devouring Universe is still good, and the local Imperial Navy and Interstellar Army are still able to obey orders; and the local forces are able to obey after receiving clear instructions from the central empire, then sending out these elite special forces should be enough.
It is nothing more than to deal with those corrupt people, alien lurkers, high-ranking officials, and traitors who refuse to surrender...
Of course, if the situation in the Star-Swallowing Universe is so bad that a large-scale rebellion occurs and the local army encounters major problems, then these 100,000 elite troops will be able to rely on their powerful individual combat capabilities to ensure that certain areas on the planet do not fall and hold on while waiting for support.
As for what the support will be... the empire has already ordered several surrounding universes to urgently mobilize troops and make preparations.
Even including six Space Marine chapters.
In such a hurry, there was definitely no way to send out all the troops. But if we gathered together the attacking arrows from multiple directions, there would be no problem after all.
There aren't thousands of worlds in the Star-Swallowing Universe that would all rebel, right?
Even the Ironclad Rebellion wasn't that exaggerated.
It is unlikely that there will be a military center group in the Star-Devouring Universe that can quickly sweep across the entire universe in a year or two like Iron Armor.
What Iron Armor can do is to have more than 20 battleships and aircraft carriers, plus tens of thousands of space marines. What does the Star-Swallowing Universe have?
All in all, even if there is a risk of war in the Star-Devouring Universe, it is unlikely to be too large in scale.
What's more, the core goal of this delegation of envoys sent by the central government of the empire is to stabilize the situation in the universe and reduce the risk of war as much as possible.
Although the Imperial Guards have already gone there and even set off, the Imperial Guards are the Imperial Guards and the imperial officials are the imperial officials.
The corruption of high lords is not unheard of in history - there are even many recorded cases. But the fact that there are many of them does not mean that such things are not serious.
When the Imperial Guards are doing their jobs, they usually just do their own things - investigating the causes of accidents, punishing the murderers behind the scenes, and dealing with traitors.
Once it was done, they came back.
But is it enough to deal with a powerful lord like the High Lord and Chairman of the Universe and just punish the main culprit?
No, no, no, that’s just the beginning, there are still a lot of troubles to come.
Even if the Imperial Guards don't care, the Empire has to.
Moreover, there is another advantage to rushing there now, which is that we can use the power of the imperial guards to do our work.
If there was no team from the central government, the imperial guards would probably come back after finishing their work. Even if there was a local rebellion, the imperial guards would probably not care.
However, the central government has sent an envoy group, and the mission is highly related to the Imperial Guards. After much persuasion, requests for help on the spot, and local cooperation, the Imperial Guards will most likely not stand idly by while this happens.
It is said that this time the Imperial Guards will send an entire Golden Spear Company.
One hundred imperial guards!
The Space Marines always thought that they were top fighters at the same level as the Custodians. They were all extraordinary humans, so even if there was a gap, it couldn't be too big, at least not by a level!
Aren’t there examples in history of Space Marines defeating the Custodes?
The traitor won, the one who won in the competition...
However, the more this is emphasized, the more it proves that there is actually a very significant gap between the two.
According to Gu Hang's estimation, the combat effectiveness of an ordinary Imperial Guard soldier is roughly enough to defeat a company champion, but will definitely lose to a regiment champion.
It’s already very exaggerated!
This is just the strength of an ordinary imperial guard!
There were also masters among the Imperial Guards, such as the captains of the Golden Shield and Golden Spear, who could easily defeat the general champions of the warbands. Even top warriors like Martins and Salilius, who were almost at the level of the Emperor's Chosen, would probably only have a 60% chance of winning against the captains of the Imperial Guards.
Above the company commander is the level of the tribune of the imperial guards.
The strength of the Imperial Guards Marshal Yan Xinzhen is even more unfathomable.
Although he had never seen him take action, after seeing it with his own eyes, Gu Hang could feel the threat from him.
Perhaps, compared with the Grand Marshal of the Imperial Guards, those sons of God can win but they cannot guarantee a sure win?
It’s hard to say. After all, Gu Hang has never seen the ancient sons of God who had long disappeared with his own eyes.
But no matter what, the value that those one hundred imperial guards can bring out is extraordinary, and there is no pressure in slaughtering one or two ordinary war groups.
With them by my side, I feel truly at ease.
In general, the last meeting on the Devouring Star Universe was about how to ensure that the Devouring Star Universe itself could get through this turmoil relatively smoothly. If it is possible to avoid a war, then don't fight a war; if it is possible to deal with it on a small scale, then deal with it on a small scale; if it is possible to use political means, then don't use violent means.
But at the same time, we must also be prepared for the worst-case scenario where the situation cannot be controlled. The elite envoys, the imperial guards, and the war preparation notices sent to the surrounding universes... are all preparations for this.
This is serious business.
The second meeting was about...
It’s even more serious!
Inside the Star-Swallowing Universe, even if the slightest situation is considered, many positions must be cleared up and down.
And aren't these vacant positions the ones that you big guys are going to share?
This is not just a struggle between political factions. For example, Qi Bo Du is now the largest faction, but within his faction, the various small factions also have their own interests and demands, and they all want to get a piece of the pie.
Although under Qi Bo Du's request, his faction's cohesion was good and they could face the outside world in unison, but behind the scenes, if there was any dirty collusion, no one could say for sure.
Even Qi Bodu himself, even if he vaguely knew it in his heart, sometimes he had to turn a blind eye.
He is the leader of the faction, the leader, so sometimes unity is even more important.
Among these positions, the most coveted ones are the two positions left by Yasdai - the chairmanship of the Star-Swallowing Universe and the chairmanship of the High Leader.
These two positions can, of course, be separated, and everyone wants them.
Of course, other political factions should have expected that they would not be able to get these two positions. These two positions originally slipped out of Qi Bodu's hands. With the ability of this centralized prime minister, how could he give them to others?
However, it doesn't matter if they can't get it. It doesn't stop them from using these two things as weapons to constantly provoke Qi Bodu. On the surface, they are rejecting the candidates proposed by Qi Bodu and nominating their own candidates on the grounds that the conditions are not met or they are inappropriate. Secretly, they are asking Qi Bodu for other benefits. If you don't satisfy them, then I will continue to make trouble for you on this matter.
Unless Qi Bo Du wanted to use his greatest authority to directly enforce the vote of the High Lords Council when they could not reach a consensus. As long as he got more than half of the votes, he could force any rule. And he held seven seats in his hands, more than an absolute majority, so he could push anything.
But this is a nuclear weapon, a tactic that can turn the table over, and it must not be used lightly.
In theory, with these seven votes, you can do anything; but in reality, this is not the case.
Voting itself is not strength, but strength brings voting. These seven votes represent the power that Qi Bo Du can mobilize, which is more than half of the total power of the empire. So when Qi Bo Du took out this trick, everyone had to weigh it and accept it with a pinch of their nose.
But if the proposal is too extreme, a majority vote will be useless.
For example, if Qi Bodu had a fit one day and decided to dissolve the state religion that he hated the most and demanded that all special political powers of the state religion be banned throughout the empire, and if it was passed by the Supreme Council with only seven votes, would this be accomplished?
Impossible.
The lightest punishment is that the state religion will simply ignore you and directly refuse to recognize Qi Bodu's orders, and then declare a holy war throughout the empire, announcing that Qi Bodu has betrayed the God-Emperor.
What to do? Start an empire-wide civil war?
Would the high lords like the Inquisition, Mars, and the Assassins' Court allow Qi Boduo to do this? Which side would they stand on?
If it really comes to this, Qi Bodu's seven seats will be shaken immediately. No matter how much the Grand Marshals of the Astra Militarum and the Navy belong to Qi Bodu's faction, if he goes crazy, will they really follow Qi Bodu loyally and follow him to wipe out the state religion throughout the empire?
That's impossible.
The only outcome of Qi Bodu's madness would be his own death, and his seven seats would all fall apart.
The same is true for this matter. If he enforces the vote forcefully and forces it through with seven votes, then the influence won't be enough to drive others crazy, but I'm afraid no one will accept it.
They would think that this was Qi Bo Du turning the table and destroying the political tacit understanding. The Inquisition might keep an eye on Qi Bo Du's people every day, catching heretics, traitors, and corrupt officials; the State Church might be looking for trouble every day; the Mechanicus might protest by refusing orders from Qi Bo Du's forces; the Assassin's Court would start to accept some assassination missions that they had never accepted before...
Everyone has means.
Politics cannot be treated as a joke, and it cannot be forced. Politics is the art of distributing interests and requires wisdom.
Qi Bodu was well versed in this.
He first hid the problems exposed by the state religion and kept silent. When the Pope's representative attacked the Prime Minister at the first meeting, saying that Asdai was pushed to the top by Zibodu and Zibodu needed to bear joint responsibility for this, and used this incident as a bullet to shoot Zibodu, Zibodu held back.
When they got the interrogation information endorsed by the Imperial Guards, which completely matched the information Gu Hang had said, and the facts were confirmed, they took it out directly at the beginning of the second meeting and slammed it in the face of the State Religion.
There was collusion between the state religion and Yasdai, and it was the state religion that instructed Yasdai to issue a despicable assassination order against Gu Hang, who was already a war hero and commander-in-chief of the empire at the time.
This issue has been discussed before. When Gu Hang was assassinated, Gallardo made a big fuss about it in the Supreme Council, and it was determined that: the order had not been discussed by the Supreme Council, the target was sensitive, and the person who issued the order behind the scenes must be held responsible and apologize.
I just didn't find out who it was.
If it is brought out now, the state religion will suddenly become passive.
Then, the unclear issues under Governor Qi Bo also became the same dirty water at this time, pouring a basin of dirty water on the state religion. Did the state religion allow or even collude with Asdai, allowing or even causing Asdai to be corrupted?
This is a bit far-fetched, but at least the Prime Minister is fighting back. Yasdai is the Prime Minister's man, so the Prime Minister is responsible.
Well, now Asdai is both Prime Minister and Pope, and we all have to share the blame.
If we further investigate the assassination of Gu Hang, does the State Church need to give further explanation?
The interrogation results given by the Imperial Guards even revealed the purpose of the State Religion's order to assassinate Gu Hang: they knew that the probability of success was very low, but they wanted to use an unsuccessful assassination order to alienate the relationship between Gu Hang and the central government of the empire.
According to Qi Bodu, the nature of this matter is "extremely heinous" and it is a terrible conspiracy that disregards the overall interests of the empire.
The state religion was in a rather embarrassing situation, unable to withstand the verbal sparring.
In this matter, it is impossible for other forces and factions to speak for the state religion.
Qi Bodu has defeated the state religion in this wave. This time when it comes to distributing the benefits, not only will you not get anything, but you will also have to give up some.
In the end, the state church handed over a cardinal as a price. All of this was done at the order of the cardinal, who acted on his own initiative and was probably corrupt, without the pope's knowledge.
The court went to do it.
The new cardinal may even be nominated by the Inquisition, not necessarily decided by the state church itself.
The Inquisition has a good relationship with the State Religion, so the State Religion can barely accept it; if the Inquisition takes this benefit, it will have to take less of the benefits of the Devouring Star Universe, or even nothing at all.
A cardinal is no worse than having a star field head in the Star-Swallowing Universe.
By fighting and eliminating at the same time, both the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy were dealt with.
Logically speaking, the rest should be easy.
Give the Assassins' Court more funding, symbolically release some of their political powers; get some orders for Mars; approve all the budgets submitted by Su Lie, who is now the representative of the Space Marines, to rebuild the Phoenix Regiment, and expand a few more regiments, with more Phoenix sub-regiments, after all, the Phoenix lineage suffered heavy losses in the Iron Armor War...
With this set of steps, it should be almost done normally.
Most of the benefits of the Star-Swallowing Universe were taken back, including the two highest positions.
As for the interests within one's own faction, it would be much easier to redistribute them internally.
Qi Bodu was even thinking about how to divide the faction internally so that he could better unite his faction or attract more forces into his faction.
However, unexpectedly, a new change suddenly occurred during this second meeting.
Mars, who is usually very low-key and doesn't make much noise unless he is involved, suddenly shows up.
They strongly opposed every candidate for the new High Lord and Star Devouring Chairman proposed by Qi Bo Du, and fiercely attacked many high-level personnel transfers within the organization that needed to be discussed at the Supreme Council!
(End of this chapter)
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