Chapter 978, King and Prime Minister
Gu Hang and Robert are both extremely smart people.
They don't need to spend time repeatedly explaining their ideas or trying to convince each other. They can clearly identify their core interests and quickly understand what the other party's core interests are and cannot be compromised.
Because of this, the communication between them is quite efficient.
Soon, some of the most basic and inviolable principles and consensus were established.
First and foremost, the Emperor is the supreme representative of the Imperium, the divine authority of faith. On the day he returns to the mortal realm—whether or not he ever does—he will be the Emperor of Mankind, ruling over all of humanity, from spirit to soul to body.
This is definitely the first one and cannot be denied.
But beyond this, a clear imperial dual headship would be established.
The empire will have two heads of state - Robert and Gu Hang.
Imperial Regent and Imperial Chancellor.
The Regent is easy to talk about, as he is the supreme military and political leader of Holy Terra and the entire empire.
Gu Hang's position as Prime Minister was different from the previous Prime Ministers of the past ten thousand years. On the contrary, it was more similar to the powers and responsibilities of the first Prime Minister of the Empire, held by the "Eternal One" during the reign of the Emperor.
The current Prime Minister's main role is to be a member of the Imperial Supreme Council and the head of the Imperial Government, commanding the four major departments of the Imperial Central Government. In theory, the Prime Ministers of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Taxation, and the Executive Yuan must all listen to him.
However, in reality, of the many prime ministers at the center of the empire over the past ten thousand years, very few have managed to hold all four positions simultaneously. It's not uncommon for a prime minister of a single department to grow politically powerful, become assertive, and even attempt to sideline the prime minister.
As for the military, the Prime Minister not only cannot directly command the troops, but even the deployment of military strategy is difficult to intervene. Several major military leaders, such as the Supreme Marshal of the Imperial Army and the Supreme Admiral of the Navy, are not under the Prime Minister's command. Even if the Prime Minister can indirectly intervene through the Ministry of Military Affairs, just as the Prime Minister may not be able to control government departments, this indirect leadership will be more fragile.
Not to mention forces like the Inquisition, the Mechanicus, the Assassins' Court, and the Space Marines, who don't even have the authority to lead indirectly through the Prime Minister's authority.
Before the Cataclysm, Zibodu was a truly powerful Prime Minister, which was actually rare in the history of the Empire. Moreover, after becoming Prime Minister, he still had to be a grandson for several decades, and spent several more decades to clean up the mess before he could slowly achieve his goal.
But even if it succeeded, the power of the Prime Minister of the Empire was still based on the government departments. To exert greater power, he had to rely on the control of the Supreme Council.
To put it bluntly, the real power of the Prime Minister isn't due to the sheer power of the position, but rather to the individual's inherent strength, relying on their exceptional skill to manipulate the Supreme Council. Essentially, they're wielding the power of the Supreme Council.
From this perspective, the authority of the Imperial Prime Minister is actually very limited.
But according to the new agreement between Gu Hang and Robert, things are different.
The Supreme Council would become a mere figurative institution in the future. The Imperial Council, once under the leadership of the Prime Minister, would become a subordinate body—this was the authority of the former First Prime Minister.
Gu Hang would soon serve as Prime Minister, and the Imperial Parliament would be responsible to him, with the power of parliamentary appointments resting with the Prime Minister. Besides overseeing the four major departments of administration, finance, law, and military affairs, all government agencies in the cosmic and star regions of the Empire would also be directly appointed and deployed by the Imperial Central Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister.
The structure in which the chairman of the universe is like the leader of the princes, the head of the star field is like the feudal prince, and the governor of the planet is like the feudal lord will be broken.
Personnel management, economic development, military development, legal affairs and stability maintenance throughout the human empire will be centralized to a higher degree.
In this sense, the Regent was nominally the supreme military and political leader, but his actual responsibilities were far less extensive, broad, and profound than those of the Prime Minister. He was more like the supreme commander of external wars and a political representative, while the actual executive responsibility lay with the Imperial central government under the Prime Minister.
Based on this structure, the Regent's Order and the Prime Minister's Order will be implemented across the Star Sea from two directions.
But because of this, Robert would certainly have concerns.
Under this structure, the role of "Regent" can be easily sidelined.
Therefore, whether it was a Regent's Order or a Prime Minister's Order, there was a prerequisite: Imperial law must prevail over all specific government affairs. The powers of the Prime Minister's Order and the Regent's Order were framed by the Imperial Reorganization Charter.
This charter framework was jointly drafted by legal experts appointed by Robert and Gu Hang.
After the charter is signed, the two sides will merge to form a new department, the "Imperial Charter Committee", which will be independent of the Prime Minister and the Regent. Its main job is to supervise and review every royal decree and prime minister's decree to see if they violate the provisions of the charter.
This committee appears to be a third-party supervisory body, but in reality the so-called "supervision" is nothing but a bubble.
The Charter Commission consisted of legal experts sent by Gu Hang and Robert. They represented the will of the Prime Minister and the Regent, respectively. They certainly wouldn't oppose their own leaders; at most, they would oppose the opposing side. Even if the Charter Commission ruled that a certain order was unconstitutional, it would essentially be one side overwhelming the other within the Charter Commission.
That is not a good sign. It may symbolize that there is a conflict between the two people, so much so that they have to have an open confrontation in this organization that is usually just a decoration.
Under normal circumstances, the two people should have a tacit understanding with each other and not exceed the provisions of the charter. If they must exceed the provisions, they should discuss and modify the charter before taking the next step.
Of course, as a supervisory body, this thing must still exist, regardless of whether it is only nominal in the future. At the very least, it must provide a place for the two heads of empire to sit down and negotiate a solution when a conflict arises.
In addition to this Charter Committee, there is another one, which is probably also a formal "constraint".
The power and responsibilities of the Regent and the new Prime Minister are enormous, so the Charter, which provides the Regent and the Prime Minister with the latest confirmation of legitimacy, must itself be approved by the Regent and the Prime Minister of the Empire and signed in the presence of the Grand Marshal of the Guards, the Martian Fabricator-General, and the Pope of the Ecclesiarchy.
The same process applies to subsequent revisions.
The approval of the two heads of state was, of course, paramount. After all, the Charter was ultimately an agreement between the two of them, defining who would do what and what their respective "spheres of influence" would be. This meant making things clear upfront to facilitate coordination.
As for the other so-called testimonies... they are just testimonies.
If the so-called "Imperial Dual Head System" really takes shape, under the highly centralized power of two bosses, what will happen to the Martian Sect and the Imperial Guard? Won't they still have to obey orders?
The Imperial Guards were fine, but just like the Martian sect, could Gu Hang tolerate the existence of something like the so-called 'other end of the Imperial double-headed eagle emblem'?
Just look at the living environment of the Mechanicus within the Alliance.
Gu Hang will respect the Mechanicus, but this respect is based on the Mechanicus being incorporated into the Alliance's research and development system and production system.
The Alliance's fleets, scouring the globe collecting technical data and recovering black boxes, while disregarding other matters, are unacceptable. The Skitarii and Mechanicus fleets within the Alliance have been reorganized. Aside from the names of the fleets and ground forces, which retain their original characteristics and the cultural elements symbolizing their origins, some of their distinctive command structures have been retained. In terms of overall strategic planning, they are completely under the command of Alliance High Command.
If you were asked to join a certain front in the Dark Side Expedition, you had to go, no questions asked. Even if you were there, you had no independent command authority; you had to obey the orders of the front headquarters, accept combat missions, and complete them well. If you didn't perform well, you would be stripped of your official uniform or court-martialed.
But similarly, the Alliance would hand over any unique technologies it acquired from various regions, technologies from alien races, and technologies lost from the past golden age to the Alliance's research institute. Once the Mechanicus fully joined the research institute, they would naturally be able to obtain these technologies free of charge.
As for state religion, the restrictions are even more severe.
High efficiency requires the unification of national power. Gu Hang will not allow the country to be divided into different factions, not only lacking mutual support but also hindering each other.
In the future, when the alliance's political system replaces the old empire's government, the corresponding situation will occur on every inch of the empire's land.
Presumably, it will cause a lot of controversy and even struggle.
But Gu Hang was determined to eliminate these resistances.
In Gu Hang's mind, if he wanted to save the entire empire, no matter how thorough the reform, it would not be enough.
According to Gu Hang's idea, what he wanted was not to take over Holy Terra and transform the old government of the empire.
No, there is no such thing as transformation.
This is not a transformation, but a revolution.
He wanted to overthrow the old imperial government and completely replace it with the alliance central government, which he was generally satisfied with.
The old system should take advantage of this war to be completely destroyed so that it can be reborn from the ruins.
When Gu Hang revealed his thoughts on Holy Terra, even though Robert had anticipated it, he was still a little frightened.
In his opinion, this was a bit too radical.
The Holy Terra government can't be so terrible, right?
Nothing left?
If there's no transition, wouldn't it be too chaotic? Wouldn't it be difficult to integrate the imperial power?
He has a lot of worries.
But Gu Hang gave a clear answer.
The Holy Terra government is just so despicable.
and……
"Give up your illusions and your luck, Your Highness the Regent. Now we must be determined to rebuild the empire."
"Reconstruction isn't just talk; it's a true rebirth from the ashes. Starting with the Alliance's Dark Side Crusade, and including the future expedition to the Holy Territory of the Empire launched from Holy Terra after we regain control of Holy Terra, it's like another founding crusade."
"You have to be prepared. This is about rebuilding an empire."
"Perhaps future history will refer to the empire that exists after this moment as the Third Reich."
Hearing the word 'Third Reich', Robert's heart skipped a beat.
There were at least two things here that shocked him.
Firstly, Gu Hang's ambition—or rather, his determination—was so enormous. To completely rebuild a new empire and replace it with an alliance was simply too big a undertaking.
But before thinking about this matter carefully, Robert had to think again, why did Gu Hang say that the empire they rebuilt was the "Third" empire?
If the Old Empire was the First Empire, what was the 'Second' Empire?
He recalled a piece of history that should be kept absolutely secret—the Second Empire hidden in the imperial civil war.
That was a secret he never wanted to be mentioned. In that era when they thought the civil war was lost, Holy Terra had fallen into the hands of traitors, and the Golden Throne had been lost, he and his other loyal blood brother, the genetic father of the Angel of Death, jointly crowned their blood brother as the new Emperor in the Infinite Star Domain.
It was a ridiculous farce. When they learned that Holy Terra had not fallen and the Golden Throne had not collapsed, they took the initiative to end the farce, buried the Second Empire in history, mobilized the army, and saved Holy Terra.
But after that, none of them dared to bring this matter to light.
If this were to be made public, who would be the traitor?
Such presumption, such disloyalty... such blasphemy.
If someone else brought up this matter, the first thing Robert would do is to draw the Emperor's Sword and chop the person to death. Then, he would launch the largest and most secret investigation and eliminate all those who knew about it.
But from Gu Hang's mouth...
Well, he didn't have the ability to get rid of Gu Hang, and he even felt that it was not incredible that Gu Hang knew about this matter.
After all, the so-called "Second Empire" was something that actually happened. Even though he had destroyed almost all records at the time, there were always some clues left about such a major historical event.
Even some clues may not be in the real universe, but may leave traces in the subspace.
So, was there anything strange about what Gu Hang learned from this?
A trace of doubt flashed through his mind for a moment:
What does Gu Hang mean by mentioning this matter now?
Was he threatening him? Was he using this secret as a bargaining chip?
Robert didn't ask the question out loud, but Gu Hang seemed to be able to hear his thoughts:
"The cornerstone of this new empire's ability to withstand ten thousand years of turmoil is the absolute mutual trust between the king and the prime minister."
"What do you say, Regent?"
(End of this chapter)
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