Chapter 987, Review of the Solar Fleet
The person who lured out the officer corrupted by Tzeentch on the 'Flying Glory' was, of course, Gu Jing, who had the Ever-Changing Demon Lord as his 'advisor'.
It's not realistic to use his Lord of Change to deceive particularly high-level beings. After all, this Lord of Change only has one appearance. Its subspatial nature has been thoroughly scrutinized by Gu Hang.
In the eyes of some great demons of the same level, the difference is very obvious. They can easily tell that the thing in front of them only has an appearance, and its interior is completely different from the real Demon Lord of Change.
However, it is still very useful to deceive children who are not at a high enough level.
Ordinary people cannot recognize the essence of subspace at all.
If one distinguishes through sound, light, and color, through perception, even if he has strong psychic knowledge, Gu Jing's 'advisor' himself was transformed from a Thousand Changes Demon Lord, and the pattern, method, and taste of his use of power are exactly the same as those of the real Thousand Changes Demon Lord.
Coupled with intentional deception, it is simply invincible.
As for whether using the power of the Myriad Demon Lord was considered blasphemy... at least, Marshal Song in front of Gu Jing didn't dare to say much.
As the commander-in-chief, he should be the supreme commander of the Solar Fleet.
But in reality, it is not at all.
His position is very difficult.
Before the Cataclysm, he had basic management responsibilities over the Solar Fleet. However, operational missions and strategic command were essentially subject to the orders of the Imperial Navy's High Command. After all, his immediate superior, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Navy, the Grand Admiral, was with him on Holy Terra. As a subordinate, he had to accept orders directly and uncomfortably.
Although he himself was a senior member of the headquarters, he was not as independent as other naval fleets. Even the battle plan could not be directly decided by him, but he had to wait for the arrangements of the headquarters.
After the Cataclysm, the situation became even worse.
The suppression and cross-level management by superiors still exist and have become stronger. After all, the Imperial Navy Headquarters used to be responsible for the naval deployment of the entire empire, but now that they can't be contacted, they can only manage the Solar Fleet. Isn't this a problem?
Moreover, Song Min was gradually losing power in the management of his subordinates, various squadrons, and even specific combat ships.
Everyone knows the importance of the navy. Forget about anything else. Holy Terra's trillions of people, and the daily consumption of water and food supplies is astronomical. Even with the best water recycling and the most advanced synthetic food technology, external resources remain indispensable.
Precisely because of the isolation brought about by the catastrophe, the value of the navy has increased unprecedentedly compared to the past.
More and more forces on Holy Terra are reaching out to the Solar Fleet.
Song Min tried to stop it at first, but later on, he couldn't stop it. He was even in danger many times, so he could only protect himself.
Now, the ships of the Solar Fleet that he can actually control may be less than one-tenth, and a considerable number of them are squeezed near the moon.
The arrival of Robert and his expeditionary force brought a turning point in the situation.
Song Min is one of the people who is most active in contacting Robert.
Both for the empire and for himself.
Everything went smoothly at first, but he underestimated the chaos under his command.
In addition to the solicitation and infiltration of various forces on the ground, there are also a large number of traitors causing trouble in his solar fleet.
Despite the failure of the negotiations, he still maintained communication with Robert, striving to maintain mutual trust. However, pushing forward the next round of negotiations, especially promoting the peaceful transfer of the entire Solar Fleet to His Royal Highness the Regent, proved to be extremely difficult.
He is afraid too.
If one operation is not done properly, a civil war will be triggered, and a considerable part of the Solar Fleet will stand on the opposite side, which will ruin Robert's important plan - and it will obviously have a significant impact on his own future.
That’s not all, the more critical thing is that once such a chaotic situation occurs, his own life may not be safe.
Against this backdrop, he received a message from Robert saying that he would send a special envoy to "solve the problem."
That's certainly welcome.
However, what made him uneasy was that Robert gave a deadline:
"This special envoy will resolve the issue in three standard Terran days."
Song Min asked what to do if the problem is not solved by the deadline?
Robert only uttered two words:
"war!"
Song Min understood immediately.
This should be the ultimatum.
He could only welcome this person's arrival with a nervous heart.
Gu Jing, he knew this person.
In other words, he knew Gu Jing's father.
Gu Hang, one of the high lords of the empire, was considered a challenger and threat to the central authority in the era before the catastrophe, but at the same time, no one could deny that he was the most powerful person in the empire at the local level.
Over the past century, Holy Terra wasn't completely isolated from all news. News from the Empire's dark side occasionally trickled in through various channels. Someone at his level could still hear some of it.
The rulers of the Imperium's dark side... Dark Side Crusades... Legions of Space Marines... Vast star fleets...
Every piece of news strikes the hearts of the imperial nobles.
The mentality of the powerful is very complicated. Song Min doesn't know how to describe others, but at least from his perspective, he actually has only one idea:
It seems that what happened in the East made the so-called alliance more like an empire than Holy Terra.
He treated Gu Jing's arrival with respect.
It is a respect for both Robert and Gu Hang.
But then, the so-called 'method' that Gu Jing came up with shocked him.
In his office, Gu Jing laid out his plan in full – he claimed that within the next three days, he would try to find as many Chaos-corrupted elements in the Solar Fleet as possible.
The specific way to find him is to rely on the shadow of the Ever-changing Demon Lord that appears behind him.
To be honest, if it weren't for Robert and Gu Hang backing Gu Jing up, the mere sight of him revealing the shadow of the Ever-Changing Demon Lord would have been enough for Song Min to immediately call the Inquisitor on the ship to come and take the person away.
What are you talking about looking for corrupt elements? My goodness, you carry a Tzeentch with you, so aren’t you the leader of the corrupt elements?
But with Gu Jing's comfort, Song Min reluctantly believed him.
Mainly, there wasn't anything extra he needed to do.
It’s nothing more than preparing an interrogation room and a prison, preferably one that is larger and more secretive.
Then, he watched Gu Jing sitting in his office without moving much.
Then, the team that came with Gu Jing, consisting of several Infinite Warriors and several Inquisitors, and a group of guards and Inquisitors on the ship that Song Min could trust, formed a secret team together.
In the interrogation room designated by Gu Jing, they welcomed the officers and generals from different ships one after another. They identified their identities, took them away, and imprisoned them. That was it.
These people are all acquaintances to Song Min.
After all, they were all his subordinates—although they weren't necessarily from the same faction as him, and he could easily lose control of them. But after all, there were still a few among them that he considered to be his own people.
Finally, they were all caught?
He was still hesitant and conflicted at first, and even didn't trust Gu Jing very much.
Although Gu Jing's methods were miraculous, silently transporting people from different warships to his 'Eternal Flame', it was impossible for anyone Gu Jing said to be a traitor to be so, right?
He arranged for an interrogation, the kind of interrogation that deeply corrupts a person, directly searching memories, testing genes and the purity and integrity of the skull.
The effectiveness is very clear, and the results are very reliable. It wasn't used before because it was slow. A thorough investigation of one person would take one or two days, and the screening rooms that were built could only screen one or two people at a time, and these had to be done one-on-one by professional examiners... This wasn't suitable for large-scale screening, especially when the targets were disobedient, non-factional, and high-ranking naval officers and generals.
However, the accuracy is quite reliable when it comes to reviewing and characterizing a single target.
The results of the investigation proved that the people Gu Jing had captured were completely reliable.
Although not everyone can be tried, everyone who is tried is a corrupt element.
Only at this point did Song Min completely give up.
Just follow Gu Jing.
The entire review process lasted two days.
Gu Jing captured a total of 1,638 people, distributed across 273 warships. The number of corrupt elements on each warship ranged from 2 to 9.
This covers almost a quarter of the remaining ships of the Solar Fleet.
When necessary, the damage he can cause is quite high.
Cleaning out these corrupt elements is of paramount importance.
With these corrupt elements sabotaging things, peace talks are nonsense.
Only after eliminating them and then pushing forward negotiations will there be a possibility of success.
Of course, Gu Jing also told Marshal Song that they couldn't rest easy at the moment. The number of corrupt elements was definitely much greater than these thousand or so.
Even though the senior officers and generals on 273 warships had been examined, it didn't mean that all the senior officers on the remaining ships were reliable. There were still some senior officers who had not been caught, perhaps because they were cautious or because Gu Jing had no time to deceive them.
After all, the time left for Gu Jing was indeed a bit too short.
What he could do was essentially use the characteristics of the Lord of Change to broadcast information on a specific 'channel' that was most likely to be received by Tzeentch's high-level followers.
Through dreams, through whispers in the mind.
If the other party doesn't believe it, there's nothing you can do.
What's more, even if it is on those more than 200 warships, it does not mean that everything will be clear after capturing high-level generals.
If even high-ranking generals have become corrupt, then how many ordinary officers and sailors on the ship have been corrupted by this group of guys taking advantage of their power? It is simply impossible to quantify.
But after all, what Gu Jing is doing now is still of extraordinary value.
At the very least, the more than 200 ships that had their corrupt leaders eliminated would react much more slowly, or even be unable to react at all, when they wanted to cause trouble in the future.
On the third day, Marshal Song Min, following Gu Jing's plan, issued the final order to every ship of the Sun Fleet as the commander-in-chief of his fleet, carrying an order from Regent Robert:
He demanded that all still loyal Imperial Navy ships sail out of the orbit of Holy Terra and assemble at the designated coordinates—in an airspace not particularly far from the lunar base—to accept the jurisdiction of the Regent.
This order, of course, could not be carried out smoothly, and undoubtedly caused an uproar.
If it really needs to be executed smoothly, there would be no need for so many operations as mentioned above.
Many voices of opposition came one after another, and many people even questioned whether Marshal Song Min was the biggest traitor and was now trying to lure them out and kill them.
But this time, Song Min's attitude became tougher than ever before.
He divided all the ships into three categories according to their behavior within a limited time.
The first category, following orders, would assemble in designated airspace for inspection. These individuals were true Imperial loyalists. They would receive the honors they deserved, and in the future, they would remain part of the glorious Imperial Navy.
The second category was those who hesitated and refused to accept orders, but that didn't matter. At the appointed time, the Regent's fleet would enter Holy Terra's orbit and launch military operations. Those who did not obstruct the expeditionary fleet could barely be considered loyal. After the war, they would undergo due diligence to determine their true character.
The third category is the obstructionist.
This kind of people are out-and-out traitors and enemies of the empire. The Regent will rain down endless anger on them!
This is the ultimatum. The agreed time - 20:00 standard Terra time - is the moment of final judgment.
After issuing this ultimatum, Marshal Song Min gave an extremely decisive order to start his flagship and head to the assembly point with a group of ships that were completely obedient to him.
However, things will not go so smoothly.
There was a lot of noise in the Sun Fleet's public channel! The loudest voices were calling Song Min a traitor, and they called on the "true loyalists" to open fire on Song Min's ships.
There is no need to analyze whether these people are corrupt elements.
There's no point, they're all enemies!
Song Min asked ships at all levels to be prepared for battle, and they had to prepare to break out.
The greatest danger has come. Not only do they have to face the cannons pointed at them, but they also have to face the artillery from orbital defense space stations and fortresses.
But at this moment, not far away, a terrifying fleet gradually emerged.
The fleet was led by three Queen of Glory warships.
(End of this chapter)
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