Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 506

Chapter 504, Zhuge-class Starship

Chapter 504:

During a Zhuge-class space carrier battle, the carrier’s most crucial capability is to safely deploy a variety of space-based fighters, from the smallest Wind Falcon to the largest Dragon Elephant, via the catapult deck, to the vicinity of the enemy ship, allowing the fighters to freely unleash their capabilities and strike the enemy.

Otherwise, a space engagement could easily span hundreds of thousands or even millions of kilometers, and relying on the fighters to fly on their own would take forever.

More sophisticated aircraft might also be equipped with a towing system, allowing the fighters to be guided from greater distances, where they could be pulled back by a pre-engaged towing force.

However, this was a luxury.

After all, according to Imperial style, catapult-launched fighters were sometimes treated as disposable, like projectiles fired from other warships. This wasn’t a surprising feat.

They were simply iron-clad shells.

Of course, Gu Hang had no intention of pursuing such a course. The necessary towing and recovery capabilities must be meticulously installed. During combat, aircraft should be recovered whenever possible. We shouldn’t treat launched aircraft as artillery shells; that would be prohibitively expensive.

Beyond the cost of the equipment, a skilled pilot is also a valuable asset.

Equipped with hundreds of space fighters and the ability to deploy them, the Command-class could be incredibly effective.

It would be a great addition to the Alliance’s naval system.

Having a cruiser-class vessel would be a welcome addition. Even if the Alliance doesn’t prioritize aircraft carrier development, having this black box is like getting a free shipyard, allowing for the construction of an additional cruiser-class vessel every two or three years.

Furthermore, with the Moon-class supporting the defense, a Command-class equipped with hundreds of space fighters of all types could potentially create unique strategic value.

…

Gu Hang considered the “Eden” Ecological Park to be a highly advanced ecological agricultural base.

Using this technology, an ecological park could achieve very high agricultural outputs, while also creating a pleasant, habitable environment suitable for manors and villas.

Creating a “Garden of Eden” would be like creating luxury housing, eco-tourism, and high-quality agricultural output all at once.

It sounds fantastic!

Ecological, environmentally friendly, and highly productive.

If combined with planetary climate modification technology, wouldn’t it be possible to mass-produce garden worlds?

But after a closer look, Gu Hang realized that this wasn’t going to happen.

While theoretically possible, it’s certainly possible.

However, the cost cannot be ignored.

Putting aside the cost of planetary climate modification, even on a planet with decent basic conditions, building a “Garden of Eden” would be costly. The

construction cost alone is high, but even more crucial is the high maintenance costs once it’s built. These costs

are reflected in two aspects: personnel and energy.

It requires a large workforce to perform the basic labor, and a significant number of biological experts to maintain the ecosystem.

Energy-wise, a vast amount of energy crystals is required to maintain the ecological state of Eden.

From a purely agricultural perspective, while the yield is considerable, it’s not cost-effective compared to the investment.

There are two areas of profit: a superior living experience and high-quality agricultural output.

From the perspective of providing food and clothing and basic necessities, building Eden is clearly not cost-effective. But from the perspective of providing high-quality enjoyment, Eden is unrivaled.

Is it valuable?

Of course it is!

The Alliance still needs it.

Gu Hang has always worried about the corruption of powerful bureaucrats.

This concern has become increasingly serious as the Alliance has developed.

Gu Hang has always been clear-headed: relying solely on ideals cannot sustain the long-term existence of a political system. Tangible interests are the foundation of every Alliance member. Human desires are limitless.

When people are poor, having enough food and clothing is enough. Once food and clothing are met, people naturally demand higher and better living conditions. This is especially true for the new generation, who grew up in a well-fed environment. In many of the Alliance’s more developed regions, these young people have no experience of hunger and are not forever grateful to the Alliance for having solved their food and clothing problems.

It’s only natural that people will demand a higher standard of living.

Even though war persists, the Alliance strives to improve people’s living standards as much as possible within limited resources.

This is directly reflected in the total industrial output value, which represents household consumption and is slowly rising across all worlds.

Rapid economic growth effectively conceals this problem. Even with increased imperial taxes and Alliance fiscal revenue, the rise in total output value still provides some benefits for the people.

A more concrete example is the steady rise in the average rank of Alliance citizens in most peaceful and developing worlds.

A clear upward trajectory and a steadily improving life are the core reasons why the Alliance enjoys widespread support.

The longer a world remains under the Alliance’s control, the more secure its rule will become as living conditions continue to improve.

To maintain this state of affairs, the Alliance must ensure two things: first, sustained economic development without regression; and second, the benefits of development enjoyed by Alliance citizens.

Both of these criteria place stringent demands on the Alliance’s vast bureaucracy.

The first requires competence; the second demands integrity.

Economic development currently appears to be robust. Through the Alliance’s highly regarded education system and Gu Hang’s investment of Gift Points in the enlightenment and training of key personnel, the Alliance’s officials are generally competent, at least significantly exceeding the Imperial average.

However, Gu Hang remains skeptical about integrity.

Despite numerous Alliance agencies ensuring this, he remains suspicious.

He cannot deny that the establishment of the Alliance has, in fact, created a vast bureaucracy.

Indeed, this bureaucracy, combined with those with military merit, now constitutes the Alliance’s ruling class.

The government, state-owned capital, public institutions, and all members of these systems are regarded as a unified class, that is, the broad bureaucracy, which holds the greatest power and interests of the alliance.

They clearly control the vast majority of the Alliance’s assets, but under the Alliance’s system, these assets are publicly owned, considered state capital. This system prevents them from truly appropriating these wealth.

While the bureaucracy holds significantly higher ranks than the general public, enjoying abundant material comforts, just as the people’s needs grow, so too do these bureaucrats.

Will they pursue even greater gains? Will their rank no longer satisfy their appetites, and will they begin to exploit state capital? The extra money earned through painstakingly rising ranks would be better spent embezzling more.

Strong anti-corruption agencies crack down vigorously, intensive ideological education is needed to prevent corruption at an early stage, and a system of public oversight is established… these standard preventative measures are, of course, necessary.

Beyond crackdowns and prevention, there should also be some sweeteners.

“Eden” seems to be a promising approach.

Establish a high-end community where outstanding, loyal, and honest individuals can enjoy good living conditions.

Even those working at the grassroots level who struggle to find housing

can enjoy vacations, gaining a sense of purpose after experiencing it. Eden’s exceptionally high-quality goods, from fine food to luxury leather goods and fine wines, could be offered as shopping perks for high-ranking officials. This would give them something to spend their allowances on and bring about a tangible improvement in their quality of life.

Furthermore, some high-end products could be branded and distributed across the alliance, allowing ordinary people to occasionally purchase them to improve their living conditions.

Expecting it to generate significant profits is unrealistic, but it could maintain stability and improve resident satisfaction, especially among the ruling class.

Since Gu Hang could see and acknowledge the existence of a vast bureaucracy within the Alliance, one that had effectively become the ruling class, he truly needed this class to enforce his will. If this class rebelled, it would lead to, at best, stagnation of development and social corruption, or, at worst, local rebellions and even the disintegration of the Alliance.

This factor likely played a significant role in the ultimate disintegration of the unbreakable Alliance that Gu Hang remembered.

Therefore, Gu Hang couldn’t simply impose repression on internal governance; he must address the interests of this ruling class.

Eden was a new experiment.

Gu Hang would establish these energy-intensive ecosystems on numerous planets. He defined the value of Eden as satisfying the Alliance’s citizens, especially those of the higher ranks (the ruling class), who aspired to a higher quality of life.

…

The Valkyrie mech was a different beast.

It was essentially a Terminator-like power armor, similar to the difference between the “Ancestral” and “Commander” power armors and true Space Marine power armor. The Valkyrie wasn’t a Terminator suit that only Space Marines could use.

However, the difference lies in the Valkyrie’s structure… something Gu Hang couldn’t quite comprehend.

Those intricate patterns required gold.

But why? Decoration?

If it were merely decorative, why were they marked as essential in the construction process?

The back, where the energy crystals were placed for power, and the prayer process.

Gu Hang’s immediate connection to these aspects was psychic power.

And not just normal psychic power, but one uniquely religious.

Take, for example, Gallardo. After being “tricked” into the Warp, he managed to hold on for so long. He wasn’t some high-level psychic, nor did he possess psychic power at all. He was merely a war apostle, an emissary of the Sun Lord. And after the Sun Lord’s death, Gallardo’s power rapidly declined. If Gu Hang hadn’t intervened to save him, he would have been gone.

Where did the Sun Lord’s power come from?

Undoubtedly, it came from the Emperor.

With the Emperor’s favor, the priests and nuns of the Ecclesiarchy, as well as individuals like the Sun Lord who could be considered “chosen by God,” enjoyed the Emperor’s favor—regardless of the source of this favor, as long as they possessed it, they could, through grace, gain powers akin to psychic powers.

The Valkyrie armor set had a similar meaning.

He recalled that, in the normal Imperial system, the Valkyrie armor seemed to be used only by nuns.

Logically, Battle Sisters were also mortal.

Previously, Gu Hang had assumed that the nuns were relatively wealthy, while the average Astra Militarum couldn’t afford such high-end equipment. But later on, he discovered that wasn’t the case.

They could use it, but ordinary soldiers might not be able to.

The Valkyrie armor required some kind of theological power to power it.

Gu Hang felt a mixture of frustration and relief.

The frustration was that this technology was only used in limited areas; the relief was that at least he had an organization under his command that could utilize it:

the Sisters of the Holy Lily.

Technically, they weren’t part of the Alliance.

But… at this point, the Sisters are located in the core territory of the Alliance, and they rely on the Alliance for economic, political, and personal development. This is an objective reality. In practical matters, unlike decades ago, when they relied on Koroja for some anti-heresy work, this is no longer necessary.

Currently, the work of the Holy Lily of Mercy is primarily to serve as a thug for several Alliance spies and inquisitors, with frequent contact with the Alliance’s legal center. When encountering problems and lacking high-end military resources, demon hunters often call on several Sisters to help out.

Another factor is war.

During the Iron Tooth War, the Holy Lily of Mercy dispatched over a thousand combat sisters to cooperate with the Alliance forces, resulting in many casualties.

The relationship between the two sides has become quite close, especially during the previous battle against the Silver Inquisition, when the Holy Lily of Mercy provided significant assistance and military support. Numerous Silver Inquisition spies were eliminated by the Sisters of Mercy of Mercy.

This is already a very clear stance, and after this test, Gu Hang really feels that he can regard them as his own people.

After all, the Valkyrie armor is best used by these combat nuns, so naturally they are equipped with it as a reward for their dedicated work for the Alliance.

…

As for the last thing, the technology that Gu Hang cares about the most is the Apocalypse-class technology.

[Zhuge-class, heavy star carrier]

This is a battleship-class ship, which is quite rare in the Imperial Navy.

On the one hand, the construction cost is relatively high, about twice as high as the Retribution-class battleship; on the other hand, within the Imperial Navy, aircraft carriers are not very popular.

In other words, the aircraft carrier faction is not the mainstream in the Imperial Navy.

Giant ships and heavy artillery are still the most mainstream; the battle cruise faction is second; and the aircraft carrier faction has the smallest voice.

(End of this chapter)