Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 517

Chapter 515: Mr. Gu gave too much

Gu Hang had come to address the problem of slow progress in the Menghe Star Region.

Of course, the solution wasn’t for Gu Hang to personally engage in battle. The Menghe Star Region’s problems weren’t about war. The Alliance had ample resources to resolve every conflict they encountered in the Menghe Star Region.

The local rebellions weren’t enough for the Alliance to handle.

The problem, however, was that there were too many.

The Alliance’s advance troops were undermanned, and the Alliance couldn’t afford to send a large number of its precious troops to Menghe simply to suppress the local rebellion.

That would be costly and impact the Alliance’s overall development plans in the Dragon Eagle Star Region.

Furthermore, it wouldn’t be economical or cost-effective.

To put it bluntly, the Alliance’s move into the Menghe Star Region wasn’t simply to expand its territory. Gu Hang’s goal was to establish a strategic buffer zone outside the Dragon Eagle Star Region. If a subsequent war broke out, they would prevent it from taking place on their own territory.

Secondly, it was… to put it bluntly, plunder.

Gu Hang wanted the Imperial Tax and Planetary Defense Force from the Menghe Star Region.

The former was real money, the latter manpower and cannon fodder.

This star region was poorer than the Dragon Eagle Star Region, but larger, boasting over seven hundred worlds. Even if each world offered limited resources, the Alliance lacked the resources to develop these places. Even the Dragon Eagle Star Region, as a “homeland,” wouldn’t have had enough time to develop.

However, the income and manpower it could provide, along with the various benefits attached, were enough to make Gu Hang quite envious.

With no intention or ability to make this region their homeland, the Alliance needed a system that could cheaply govern the region. Even if it was precarious, as long as it could extract local benefits, that was enough.

The key word was “cheap governance costs.”

The teams of officials dispatched by the Alliance to various planets were small, often consisting of only one or two hundred administrative staff. Their primary responsibility wasn’t direct planetary administration, but rather the establishment of cooperative governments, whether newly established or collaborating with existing interest groups.

Once these governments were established, they would manage and oversee them. Specific governance, tax collection, resource provision, and manpower supply are primarily handled by local cooperative governments.

Adding a small number of Alliance troops—for example, one regiment per planet—is sufficient.

A division at most.

This mechanism achieves the low-cost governance Gu Hang envisioned.

But therein lies the problem.

Low-cost governance implies instability.

What caused those rebellious worlds?

Was it simply the lingering influence of the Fury?

It’s probably not that simple.

This is certainly a factor, and a significant one.

However, the loss of control that comes with low-cost governance is also significant.

Some worlds are dissatisfied with Alliance control because the Alliance demands more than imperial taxes.

Establishing cooperative governments will inevitably infringe upon the interests of the ruling classes of these worlds.

It’s not uncommon for them to incite rebellion, or even participate in it themselves.

This is reflected in the information Gu Hang sees on his system dashboard: while these worlds have been recognized by the system and entered into the [Vassal] panel, their vassal levels are generally uniformly around Level 1 or 2, indicating a high probability of secession and rebellion.

In response to this, Gu Hang has already made some demands for the work of the Alliance government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The core requirement is that Alliance officials dispatched to Menghe must respect the interests of the local ruling group when acting there. They can even utilize the Alliance’s powerful garrison and agents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve problems they previously struggled to solve. They can also be allowed, or even condoned, to seize benefits that were previously difficult to obtain.

For example… more aggressive exploitation.

This would naturally make the already struggling local residents’ lives even worse.

However…

it would only further hardship the people.

This process would undoubtedly have many negative consequences. For example, local residents would become more resistant to Alliance rule. They might believe that the Alliance’s arrival has made their lives even worse. The local ruling class would welcome this perception and even actively promote it.

But the Alliance has no other options.

At most, they can be more meticulous in their work, conduct local propaganda, and shift the blame onto the Alliance government.

These are some of the Alliance’s measures for handling the work of the Alliance government.

In the Menghe Star Region, Gu Hang couldn’t yet fully utilize his newly granted authority, the Land Occupation Act, on a large scale. After all, the Land Occupation Act only granted Gu Hang the right to bring the region under Alliance rule if the Empire’s enemies were defeated. However, the situation in the Menghe Star Region clearly wasn’t yet such that he could declare the planets within it “enemies of the Empire.”

While such a declaration was possible, it would be a bit excessive and would damage his reputation.

Direct rule was unattainable and unintended. Using a colonial-style “cooperative government” to transform these regions into vassal states and exercise indirect rule would render the Land Occupation Act unnecessary.

…

With the planetary-level strategy established, the remaining work fell to Gu Hang.

Hostile forces from the Princess Star Region would require the coordinated efforts of military and intelligence agents;

local rebellion could be addressed through optimized cooperative government strategies.

Beyond these two, there was a third source of resistance that couldn’t be ignored:

pressure from the Menghe government.

This was a problem Gu Hang hadn’t even considered at first.

After becoming the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Theater Command, nominally in charge of military and political power, Gu Hang certainly didn’t have full control over the entire Eastern Universe—this request was rejected by Holy Terra—but at least Holy Terra had clearly issued an order to the Eastern Universe, demanding that the entire Universe government cooperate with Gu Hang’s actions and assist him in war preparations.

As one of “their own,” Zuo Zhaofeng, a member of Gallardo’s political faction, naturally wouldn’t put any obstacles in Gu Hang’s way.

While his support wouldn’t bankrupt him, given that there were still many other threats within the Universe that needed to be addressed, he had at least done a lot within a reasonable range.

For example, they could allocate some of the imperial tax revenue to the Alliance.

For example, they could mobilize troops from relatively peaceful areas within the universe, especially a significant portion of the navy, to the Alliance’s side to aid in combat operations and strengthen its naval capabilities.

This would be a significant support.

Converted into monetary terms, the total value would likely reach tens of billions.

Not to mention, this support would continue for many years to come.

That’s a lot of money.

Currently, not counting the Alliance’s expenses, the imperial tax revenue from the Dragon Eagle Star Region, combined with fiscal revenue, only totals around 200 billion.

The Eastern Universe can provide 50 billion annually in ships, supplies, money, and troops… That’s quite a bit, equivalent to around 20% to 25% of the Alliance’s total revenue.

Zuo Zhaofeng is being very generous to this extent.

The Universe needs to spend money, and so do the various star regions within it. With so much money being raised annually, who could say Zuo Zhaofeng isn’t one of them?

From his perspective, he also gave clear instructions to the Menghe Star Region government, urging them to cooperate with the Alliance’s actions.

However, the situation in the Menghe Star Region was different.

Other star regions simply obeyed the Cosmic Government’s demands and contributed money and manpower; the Alliance wouldn’t come to their territory.

The Menghe Star Region, however, was formally invaded by the Alliance.

As the host, or at least the supposed host, the Menghe Star Region government was quite unhappy about this.

This was the superficial factor. At least, that’s what Zhai Guangshan, the head of the Menghe Star Region, said when he expressed his dissatisfaction to the Alliance.

He considered the Alliance’s actions an invasion and had filed several complaints.

Since filing a complaint with the Cosmic Government wasn’t very effective, he filed a complaint with Holy Terra.

That, too, wasn’t very effective.

But it was also somewhat distasteful, having a head of state constantly shouting about what the Alliance had done to him was truly annoying.

The potential loss of reputation was already a problem in itself, not to mention the rebellions that were brewing across the region, prompted by the government’s instigation.

The Alliance’s intelligence department has gathered some intelligence, deducing that many of the more violent incidents are vaguely linked to the star region or district governments.

Besides the perceived conflict of interest, the Alliance’s intelligence department also believes there are ambiguous connections between the Menghe Star Region government and the Iron Fury Stone.

While the Alliance’s current intelligence isn’t crucial or definitive, and can’t directly implicate Zhai Guangshan, mere suspicion doesn’t require complete proof.

Furthermore, if Gu Hang wants to resolve the situation through force, he doesn’t necessarily need irrefutable evidence.

What kind of evidence would be needed to quell the rebellion? It’s

simply that Gu Hang doesn’t want war,

at least not a large-scale one.

Since he doesn’t want war, Gu Hang has come personally this time to resolve the issue through diplomatic and political means.

This isn’t something he can achieve simply from aboard the Dragon Eagle.

Upon entering the Menghe Star Region, his target is clear: a planet called Granya.

Granya’s position in the Menghe Star Region is somewhat similar to that of Feiyi Star in the Dragon Eagle Star Region,

perhaps even more significant.

While not the region’s capital, this world boasts a developed shipbuilding industry, and its shipbuilding industry has a powerful economic impact.

In comparison, Mengyang, the capital of the Menghe region, is even less developed than Grangar.

The Alliance’s advance fleet has already entered Grangar.

Grangar itself is one of Gu Hang’s strategic targets, and he covets the planet’s shipbuilding capabilities.

While its capabilities are still inferior to those of Winged Star, let alone the advanced shipbuilding industry now under Alliance control, Grangar is one of the few places capable of building large ships. While its original technology couldn’t even produce a Moon-class cruiser, the only cruiser it could produce was a castrated version of the “Zhenhe-class,” it was still a cruiser!

Furthermore, if Grangar were controlled by the Alliance, its technology could be effectively utilized on the planet. By breaking through the existing technological bottleneck, Grangar’s infrastructure—the large shipyard and starport, as well as the production capacity of various ship components required on the planet—would be greatly enhanced.

Even the original dock on it that was used to manufacture Belly-class transport ships could be modified to build battlecruisers.

The sooner Granya was acquired, the sooner shipbuilding could begin, and the sooner the Alliance Navy could build strength.

But here, they were blocked.

The Menghe Fleet blocked the Alliance advance fleet, preventing it from approaching; at the same time, the planet, including the starports and shipyards in orbit, were filled with a large number of troops, ready for battle. The

Alliance forces were thus stuck.

On the one hand, the advance fleet alone might not be able to defeat the Menghe Fleet, and the land forces it carried were not large enough to quickly capture the entire planet.

On the other hand, it would not be appropriate to actually deploy troops and start a war.

Then, Gu Hang arrived.

He also took the initiative to meet the enemy alone.

The Alliance attached so much importance to Granya, so of course they had made arrangements there. Multiple Alliance intelligence organizations had people planted there. On behalf of Gu Hang, an invitation for a meeting was sent to the powers that be on the planet, the board of directors of the Granya Shipping Group.

They also agreed to meet.

Afterwards, the star district government, knowing the situation, was still trying to stop it. However, when they started to act, it was too late. Gu Hang himself had already taken a small boat to the Granya star port and completed the meeting with the powers that be of the shipping group.

They just blocked Gu Hang outside the conference hall when he had just finished the meeting with the directors of the shipping group.

Gu Hang was only accompanied by two followers, and he was the only one.

The head of the Yayun star district led the team in person. He looked at Gu Hang with a bad face and sneered, but he hadn’t thought of what to say, and in the end he could only watch Gu Hang leave the star port.

Then, the Menghe fleet made way, and the alliance’s army entered the star port and the surface.

The irritable star district head was “courteously sent” out of the star port.

…

“What did Gu Hang say to you that made you give up resistance?” Zhai Guangshan asked this question to Jerry Fisher with a dark face.

When Zhai Guangshan, the head of the Menghe Star Domain, knew that Gu Hang was coming to Granya, he hurried over.

However, when he arrived, everything was too late.

Granya was already owned by the Alliance.

Unwilling to leave, he received an invitation from Gu Hang, who had not left yet.

After thinking about it, he decided to accept the invitation and talk to Gu Hang in person.

The place of conversation was still at the star port of Granya.

Fisher, the chairman of the shipping group, was there to accompany him and wait for Gu Hang’s arrival with Zhai Guangshan.

While waiting, Zhai Guangshan couldn’t help but asked the previous question.

Fisher just smiled embarrassedly: “Mr. President, there is no way…”

“I didn’t want to do it at first. I planned to stand with you.”

“But… Mr. Gu gave too much.”

(End of this chapter)