Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 1016

Chapter 1007, Don’t Block the Road

. Angel was smiling as she left the Kafiora family.

They had surrendered.

Of course, that was as it should be. After all, whether they truly surrendered or planned to feign obedience and secretly engage in confrontation, their current choice would be to comply.

Unless they were seeking death,

which was highly unlikely.

As for their subsequent choices… Angel wasn’t as indifferent as she let on.

After all, if the Kafiora family didn’t truly submit, there would be trouble ahead, and it would all be her

, the Grand Chief Deacon’s, responsibility. Although she believed she would be the victor in the ensuing battle, she had extensive experience in such “liquidation” operations and the backing of a powerful alliance, making victory inevitable.

However, it would take considerable time, significantly slowing her efficiency.

She had to deal with more than just the native families of Indynia, but the entirety of Holy Terra, encompassing thousands of hives.

Of course, not every hive boasted powerful, established families. Not every one of them needed her help.

There were dozens of “Special Deacons” or “Senior Deacons” like her, tasked with dismantling the local powerful on Holy Terra. Their authority, in this matter, wasn’t much different, and their responsibilities were similar.

But beyond the need for collaboration and information sharing, there was also undeniably fierce competition. After

all, the position of Vice Minister of the Imperial Central Judicial Department was likely only open to two or three people this time, so the competition was intense.

Furthermore, Angel knew that this promotion wasn’t simply a matter of who could achieve the most ruthless results, the fastest, or the most significant results.

They were vying for the position of Vice Minister, a position considered high-ranking in the Empire. If competition was based solely on who could achieve the most, then that was merely a matter of sharpening the knife.

To advance, one needed to be politically sensitive and able to execute the tasks at hand effectively.

While wielding a sharp blade, one cannot unleash bloodshed wherever one goes, as that would cause the higher-ups to seriously doubt one’s political abilities

. Nor can one be too soft-hearted, resulting in a chaotic mess and the end of one’s political career.

The balance is quite difficult to strike.

But Angel has some experience.

The key is to understand what the Alliance, or the New Empire, truly seeks.

Is it the lives and wealth of these powerful families?

No.

Money is meaningless to the New Empire.

Nor is it a matter of taking their lives. After all, the powerful families and local interest groups still active in Imperial politics either shed blood and fought during the Terran Wars, or at least have distanced themselves from Chaos and not fallen to the dark side.

Even during the Terran Wars, when numerous hives fell and Chaos corruption was rampant, this was quite rare. These powerful individuals in the Imperial capital more or less displayed a degree of human integrity.

The stereotype of them as corrupt, sensual, and extravagant is true. At the same time, this doesn’t prevent them from being truly the elite of humanity. On major issues, while there are some who have fallen, a high percentage still maintain a firm line.

It’s inappropriate to directly raise the knife against these people.

Even without considering their past achievements, these people have received the best education since childhood, have seen the world, and have been tempered by the Terran War. They are truly talented—provided their intelligence and talents aren’t misused.

To slaughter them all would be a huge loss.

Furthermore, the Alliance never slaughters those who have made contributions.

But the prerequisite is that they don’t stand in the way.

If you want to be an official, you can; if you want to start

a business, you can;

even if you simply want to be a freeloader, relying on your historical achievements and economic resources to live comfortably without doing anything, that’s acceptable to some extent.

But what the Alliance absolutely cannot accept is that these families still control the means of production at the grassroots level, forming a stable economic and political cycle of interest groups.

In the long run, this will seriously threaten the New Empire’s regime.

It’s not obvious yet, because these families have just experienced the baptism of war and are deeply weakened. Politically, due to the Alliance’s entry and the pressure from the Infinite Star Domain, they lack positions and appear to be declining. But over time, they will gradually rise again through their own control over the lower levels of society.

Whoever controls the productive forces controls the grassroots of this society.

The Alliance system must also function on Holy Terra. If it is not to be just a shell, these interest groups must be eliminated.

This has nothing to do with whether these families are obedient or not.

They are indeed obedient now, but that’s because the war has just ended and the new Empire has just been established. They haven’t yet figured out and established the new rules of the social game. The Alliance’s established authority is also very profound.

But who can guarantee their obedience forever?

Moreover, their so-called “obedience” now is actually something the Alliance cannot tolerate.

For example, in the conflict with the New Empire Central Government over development and expeditions, these local interest groups are very vacillating.

Some are quickly becoming active, using their influence in the hives to try to make political gains. They may join the Alliance but demand benefits, or join the Regent under the guise of supporting the expedition…

This situation is intolerable.

Moreover, even if these local interest groups produce according to the central government’s requirements, they have many ulterior motives.

They are happy to accept government orders, but they accept them with conditions.

High-profit, easy-to-produce production is handled by their own directly affiliated enterprises.

For less profitable tasks, they subcontract them out layer by layer, deducting the profit margins and letting peripheral enterprises handle them. These ordinary entrepreneurs are then forced to sing their praises and beg for food.

For tasks with low profits, difficulty, and potential losses, they are similarly subcontracted, forcing them onto companies and factories that have nothing to do with them, or even those they don’t deal with. They exploit wherever they can, causing product quality to decline or orders to simply fail to be fulfilled, thus shifting the blame. Individuals are convicted, factories are fined, and when operations fail, mergers are conveniently carried out…

This results in a loss of overall efficiency and hinders the alliance’s development strategy. If

we don’t act now to eliminate these powerful individuals who, despite their past contributions, now stand in the way, the problem will only worsen and become increasingly difficult to resolve.

At the same time, “swallowing” them, increasing efficiency and capacity, is also key to easing the conflict between the current imperial government’s development strategy and the Prince Regent’s expeditionary strategy.

With more resources and more production capacity, the scale of the expedition requested by His Royal Highness the Regent could be achieved more quickly.

It was precisely because of this that Gu Hang was able to convince him.

All the complaints filed against the Ministry of Justice and brought to the Regent’s Palace fell on deaf ears. Even those of high status who came to the palace were told that the Regent was supervising the fleet’s training.

(End of this chapter)