Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 503

Chapter 501, Alliance 400 World

Alliance Government did even better than Gu Hang had imagined.

The bloody duel between the Phoenixes and the Fury Flames was initiated by Martins. Before he proposed this idea to the Fury Flames, he reported it to Gu Hang and received his approval.

Otherwise, how could he have dared to so casually gamble the lives of a hundred Phoenixes?

Gu Hang agreed because he was, of course, even more confident than Martins.

After approving Martins’s opinion, he also provided a list of a hundred names, asking Martins to choose from them when arranging the duel.

He had trained all of these individuals to the level of company champions.

Unfortunately, the system’s standard training level could only reach this level, not higher.

However, Gu Hang had another method.

The enlightenment in the [Hero] interface could of course also be used for Space Marines, but the price of enlightenment was a bit higher.

But for this duel, Gu Hang was certainly willing to spend the money.

In fact, the enlightenment process still needed to train them into company champions. After all, Gu Hang couldn’t guarantee the specific hero templates that would emerge after enlightenment. Some people weren’t solely gifted in combat, but rather in battlefield command, stealth, and assassination. One Space Marine even had a talent for civil administration!

As an aside, having Space Marines serve as administrators actually made sense in some sense!

After genetic modification, most of their mundane desires had been eliminated, making them less susceptible to corruption. Their energy was incredibly high, allowing them to work year-round. While mortals would complain about working 996, Space Marines could actually be as effective as 007—no kidding, at least for a short period of time.

But that was just a thought.

Training a Space Marine civil administrator was far more expensive than training a mortal, and the resulting improvement was far less than the improvement a Space Marine would achieve on the battlefield compared to a mortal soldier.

Furthermore, Gu Hang had to consider the morale of the entire empire. Allowing Space Marines to rule was somewhat taboo. Aside from the Infinite Marines, who held such privileges within their own Infinite Sector, no other Space Marine would do so.

Regardless, the boon points spent on the Space Marines were valuable, bringing significant improvements to elite warriors. Furthermore, through this bloody duel, they could also decimate the elite of the Fury.

Under normal circumstances, this would be difficult.

For example, decapitating Chapter Master Erso on the battlefield was incredibly difficult. One would have to overcome countless obstacles, and even then, facing him, he was a top-tier Transcendental Warrior.

However, in the duel, he was completely alone.

The same was true for the other high-ranking members of the Fury.

This presented a golden opportunity to weaken the Fury.

Gu Hang anticipated that the Fury would undoubtedly deploy a significant number of its elite warriors in the duel, offering a perfect opportunity to annihilate them!

Of course, while this was indeed Gu Hang’s plan, he could never have imagined the ultimate outcome would be so profound.

Even Erso himself perished there.

How could he have imagined that Erso would actually lose his mind and end up like this?

Moreover, after hearing the report about the duel, he was also a little scared. The battle between Erso and Martins had decided life and death in a split second. A repeat fight could very well have had a completely different outcome.

If Erso had slain Martins, while the Wrathfire Chapter would still have suffered heavy losses, killing Martins would have saved some face. And with Erso himself still alive, the Wrathfire Chapter’s morale, even if low, wouldn’t have been completely crushed. In that scenario, the Wrathfire Chapter’s retreat wouldn’t have been so hasty, nor would they have completely abandoned their raiding operations.

In fact, the losses in the arena might have made the retreat even more brutal and violent. Perhaps all that was left to Gu Hang was a shattered Yunluo Star, a devastating loss.

Victory in a bloody duel might not be a war, but the rewards would have been far greater than a war itself!

From this perspective, the Phoenix performed a significant role.

Of course, the Alliance’s subsequent achievements cannot be overlooked.

They quickly took over almost the entire western sector of the star system. Over the following eight months, they not only stabilized the local situation on various planets, but also implanted the Alliance’s systems there, effectively operating them.

Gu Hang was extremely satisfied with this.

The government system he had personally built, and into which he had invested countless gifts over a long period of time to cultivate talent and loyalty, had finally achieved the desired effect.

At this point, the entire Dragonhawk sector was completely under his control.

Oh, that’s not right.

Actually, there were still some areas that weren’t fully under the Alliance’s direct rule.

That was the Steelfire Dragon sector.

The Cult of the Bright Sun had almost complete control of the Steelfire Dragon sector. At the end of the Iron Teeth War, while sweeping through the greenskins, they also attacked and seized control of two other sectors to the north: Dragon Tamer and Dragon Pass.

However, the actions of the Mechanicus should be approached with caution.

These oil-oil guys are difficult to deal with.

But under normal circumstances, they rarely pose a threat.

These two star regions, plus the Steel Fire Dragon Star Region, which is directly controlled by the Ming Yang Sect, can be left alone for now. Later, Gu Hang has a trip planned to personally visit Jindi Star to have a good chat with the Ming Yang Sect.

By then, any remaining issues should be resolved.

After all, among the current high-ranking officials of the Ming Yang Sect, there is an old acquaintance of Gu Hang: Wu Jiarong.

Many things become easier to handle when you have someone on the inside.

Gu Hang hadn’t imagined that his initial unintended consequences would so fruitfully blossom.

The matter of the Mechanicus could be put aside for now. Within the Dragon Eagle Sector, the remaining 34 star regions were now under Gu Hang’s control.

That totaled, no more, no less, exactly 400 worlds.

The total population reached 820 billion.

Gu Hang’s wealth had suddenly become significantly richer!

Furthermore, unlike the various territories Gu Hang had acquired during previous wars, the western part of the Dragon Eagle Sector was actually more prosperous than the eastern part.

Previously, the population of the region Gu Hang had occupied was only around 340 billion; the western part, on the other hand, boasted a much larger population, reaching 480 billion.

Furthermore, leaving aside the star region capital of Yunluo Star, which was even more developed than Feiyi Star, Yunluo Star, with Yunluo Star at the forefront, radiated to numerous worlds throughout the entire region, strongly driving their economic development. Unlike Feiyi Star, which was once so beautiful, while the other worlds in the Tianma Sector were left destitute.

At the same time, the Fire Eagle, Heroic Soul, and Ancient Totem sectors—three previously untouched sectors, totaling over forty worlds—became a powerful support for the then-sector government due to the war.

Vast resources gathered from the Cosmic and other regions were stored here. Production bases were also established to supply the front lines.

Furthermore, a large number of people were displaced from war-torn worlds on the front lines .

The war objectively provided excellent development opportunities for these forty-plus worlds.

These three sectors, along with the Yunluo sector, became a relatively developed economic engine in the western Dragon Eagle sector.

Currently, the Dragon Eagle sector has formed a “three cores and a vast expanse of ruins” pattern.

The so-called “three cores” refers to the southwestern core, centered around Yunluo, with the Ancient Totem, Heroic Soul, and Fire Eagle sectors as its annexes. This core represents the Alliance’s largest share of this profit.

These four regions alone have a population of 250 billion and a total output value of 630 billion. The annual imperial tax payment reaches 67 billion, but even so, the remaining fiscal surplus for the Alliance after paying taxes reaches 100 billion.

This large fiscal surplus means that there is still enough to supply almost two battlecruisers a year!

Rich land!

The other core is naturally the Seven Ma Di, headed by Gu Hang’s home base, the Tianma Star District, and united with the six surrounding star districts. This region has a population of 170 billion and a total output value of 360 billion.

To be honest, it is far behind the “Yunluo Center”. After all, the “Seven Ma Di Center” is a latecomer, having only begun to develop in the last eight years since it was incorporated into Gu Hang’s rule. And the main area of development is still the Tianma Star District. The Tianma Star District’s economic radiating effect on the other six Ma is already fully realized, but its development is still relatively limited due to its short history.

Moreover, the total population is not large enough. The population has reached 170 billion, a figure only reached in recent years, thanks to the rapid birth rate driven by policies encouraging childbirth and the influx of population from several other war-torn sectors.

Overall, however, the potential for development remains enormous, and under the leadership of the Alliance, it is currently on the fast track of rapid development.

There is also a third core area, the Steelfire Dragon Center, a joint industrial complex based on the Mechanicus’s forge world of Kindhi. However, it is not currently under full Alliance control, so I will not discuss it further.

Beyond these three core areas, the other 23 sectors, totaling 258 worlds, have a combined population of only 388 billion. Their output is even more dismal, barely reaching 300 billion. After paying the annual Imperial tax and deducting local consumer spending, the remaining balance is 11 billion.

This means that the Alliance is losing money on acquiring these worlds.

Losing 11 billion a year isn’t a big deal; the Alliance can afford it. For the Alliance, now that it has control of the entire star field, this is a small hole, easily remedied.

But the key point is that this loss only accounts for consumer spending and Imperial taxes.

If the costs of maintaining control are included, the losses would be even greater. Furthermore, many of these worlds were devastated by the war during the previous Green Tide and need post-war reconstruction and increased investment in humanitarian aid. Otherwise, the situation will not only take a long time to improve, but may even worsen in the short term.

Establishing governments, military development, deepening control… Adding up all the various investments, the Alliance estimates an annual fiscal deficit of around 60 billion!

This is no small sum!

For comparison, the theoretical annual Imperial tax revenue for the Dragon Eagle Star Field is only a little over 120 billion!

The enormous economic burden imposed by these worlds is already straining the Alliance.

The Alliance’s fifty army groups, with a ground force of one billion, only cost less than 15 billion per year to maintain!

This 60 billion annual figure is truly outrageous.

In fact, after Gu Hang returned to the Dragon Eagle Star Region and met with many people on Yunluo Star, the first government meeting he convened within the Alliance was to address this very question: what should be done with the 258 ‘loss-making worlds’?

Currently, Alliance officials were discussing three broad lines of thought.

One was to maintain a high degree of centralization. Sixty billion yuan in annual investment wasn’t even enough; further investment was needed, reaching around 70 billion or even 80 billion yuan. This wasn’t a long-term loss; the initial high investment would guarantee the future development of these worlds. After one to two years, the cost of investment should be reduced by more than half. Simultaneously, the output of these worlds would fully recover thanks to the substantial investment stimulus.

It was estimated that within four to five years, they would be able to return to profitability.

However, another faction strongly opposed this plan.

Even if everything went according to their estimates, the total investment over five years would likely exceed 250 billion yuan. But all they achieved was to stop the losses and bleeding; it would take years to reach the point where they could generate revenue for the Alliance, even recouping the 250 billion invested.

The war was indeed over for now. However, the Alliance still faced a formidable external threat. The Ironclad, the “evil neighbor” next door, might strike at any moment. After the Fury returned and licked their wounds, would they forget the humiliation and pain inflicted by the Alliance? The

Alliance couldn’t shift all its resources solely to economic development.

Spending so much money on the recovery of these “loss-making worlds” would severely hinder the Alliance’s military development.

If the enemy invaded, the Alliance would likely be completely destroyed before any progress could be made.

As for the third faction, they didn’t have much insight; they simply sat somewhere in between the two.

(End of this chapter)