Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 527

Chapter 525, ‘Ronglin’ and ‘Golden Wing’

Chapter 525: Jason Morgan, the Alliance-appointed sector governor of the Ronglin and Steel Wing,

differs significantly from the conventional Imperial system, where leaders are similarly powerless and function as paperhangers.

The Alliance system emphasizes that every level of government should fulfill its role. Furthermore, unlike a conventional Imperial planetary governor, the Alliance’s planetary governor does not have complete control over a planet. The Alliance’s government and military are separate. Military development falls under the purview of the Military and Administrative Department under Thaddeus. Even the Planetary Defense Forces—known as the Covenant Forces in the Alliance—are developed and trained by the Military and Administrative Department’s planetary divisions.

Military command falls under the overarching command structure of the Alliance Army. Planetary garrisons operate under the command of the Alliance’s various armies, and the primary force within each of these armies is the Alliance Army.

Planetary governors exercise virtually no power over the military, participating neither in military development nor command; they function as purely administrative officials.

Furthermore, there’s a clear hierarchical relationship with the Sector Governor, who reports to him. While the Sector Governor can’t directly remove the Planetary Governor, his evaluation of their performance significantly impacts their performance, and he’ll hold them accountable for any mistakes.

As Sector Governor, he can more directly and smoothly intervene in the management of each planet, allocating resources to ensure the coordinated development of all worlds within the sector.

This is only possible with the clear upward centralization of power brought about by the Alliance.

Of course, a Sector Governor like Jason Morgan is isolated from the military.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need military support.

There are bad elements among the masses.

The man tied to the chair before him is one of them.

They were once part of the ruling class on Ronglin Star.

Frankly, Jason Morgan has no regard for these people.

They performed poorly during the Iron Teeth War, offering little resistance and simply fleeing and hiding across planets.

That alone would be fine, but we can’t expect powerful warriors to descend from every planet, leading the survivors to a head-on battle against the Greenskins and even making a splash. Organizing the survivors and preserving as much vitality as possible against the Greenskins’ threat is mission accomplished.

However, the ruling classes on Ronglin Star and many other planets in the Steel Dragon continued to exploit and oppress the people during that difficult and critical time, even living a life of luxury themselves.

Even after being liberated by the Mingyang Cult, they maintained control of the planets and actively sided with them. The Mechanicus was too lazy to intervene directly, and these local forces were willing to serve as pawns. Isn’t that great?

But if they were pawns, they were serving the Mechanicus. As the Mechanicus ferociously drained its blood in its quest for self-reconstruction, these people, besides being accomplices, took advantage of this opportunity to continue their exploitation.

In the brief period between the end of the Iron Teeth War and Jason Morgan’s arrival four years ago, a series of “rebellions” and “riots” erupted across the Steel Fire Dragon planets, particularly Ronglin. These naturally inflicted immense damage on planetary society.

However, Morgan himself preferred to view these events as “uprisings.” “

People can’t survive, so why not fight you to the death?”

After Jason Morgan assumed power, he naturally sought to rectify these issues.

He despised the former ruling class, but he also felt their methods of rule were crude and degenerate. Morgan wanted his planet to develop, and this required the proper unleashing of productivity on the native planet. He couldn’t allow such backward production methods to exploit and oppress the former ruling class like slaves.

It wasn’t just that these middle class members, acting as a middle class, were siphoning off excessive profits. Morgan could tolerate that alone. What he couldn’t tolerate was the drastic suppression of productivity across society caused by this inefficient plunder.

After four years of sustained attacks, backed by the Alliance’s navy and army, these former rulers were severely crippled.

They were a group of spineless men, able to kneel before the Cult of the Sun, and certainly capable of kneeling before the more powerful Alliance.

However, the difference was that the Mechanicus ignored them, even indulged them; the Alliance maintained strict control and swiped their power and influence. They

dared not confront these “kneelers” directly, instead constantly stirring up trouble and disrupting things behind the scenes. In fact, in the early days of Morgan’s rule, when he had to rely more heavily on the existing administrative resources of each planet, these people not only pretended to obey but actually took pleasure in… as Governor Gu put it, “waving the red flag to oppose the red flag.”

They dared not openly oppose Morgan’s policies, but instead amplified them several times, implementing them in an extreme manner, causing widespread outrage.

Jason Morgan had truly had enough of these people.

After four years of fighting them within the rules, Morgan was tired of it.

Without this group’s drag, Morgan was confident he could triple the development of the Steel Dragon planets.

He’d endured it until now, but

now he finally had to endure it no longer. Having significantly weakened the ruling power of these former groups within the political framework, he could finally take ruthless action and physically eliminate them. He

didn’t even bother going through the formalities to prevent further recurrences. Secret arrests, trials, and eliminations were carried out. While not entirely aboveboard, necessary measures were necessary when necessary.

The sooner the cancer was eradicated, the better for future progress.

He paced the prison, taking in the over 200 people, essentially all arrested according to the list he’d given.

All were gagged and refused a word.

After confirming the list was complete, he left.

At the door, he nodded slightly to the head of the secret police, confirming his work.

The other party handed him a document.

Morgan signed it and personally pressed the button he’d handed him.

This button led to each cell below, toggling the ventilation ducts within.

Deadly poison gas was pumped into every cell, silently and in a matter of minutes, killing all the prisoners.

These two hundred or so individuals, once released on Ronglin Star, were powerful figures, as they were now. Slave owners, monopoly business owners, union chairmen, feudal lords… a variety of identities combined to form the color of their rule.

Now, with Morgan pressing a button, all these colors turned gray and black.

If we continue to use political means to slowly fight them, who knows how long it will take to completely eliminate them.

Let’s cut the Gordian knot.

In fact, this should have been done long ago.

It’s simply that Morgan’s control was not enough before.

Now it is barely enough, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the external political environment has also undergone significant changes.

While Morgan was lost in thought, he heard footsteps again.

“Is everything taken care of?” the newcomer asked.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go. We haven’t done the most important business of the day yet.”

“Yes, let’s go!”

Morgan put his arm around the newcomer’s shoulder and, chatting quietly with him, left.

This was his partner, Ronglin Planetary Governor Todd Paulson.

After leaving the prison, they boarded a hovercar that had been waiting outside. After several hours of high-speed flight, they arrived at Ronglin’s ground starport. They then took the space elevator directly up to the starport and changed hovercars at the starport…

The trip to the starport had been quite challenging.

But they still had to come.

They needed to wait here for a high-ranking official from Alliance Headquarters.

Senior General Thaddeus, the Chief Political Commissar of the Alliance Military and Political Department.

Compared to Jason Morgan, who had to fight hard in a difficult but fruitful place like Steel Fire Dragon to secure a seat on the Central Committee, Thaddeus was a true leader.

Aside from Gu Hang, the leader of the Alliance, Thaddeus held an incomparably high position among the remaining leaders.

Even if he wasn’t the top figure in the Alliance military, he was at least a strong contender.

While he never directly led the Alliance’s military, the Military and Political Department, to some extent, assumed responsibilities similar to those of the Imperial Military Affairs Department. Primarily responsible for military development, this included logistics and equipment, recruitment and training, military ideology, and officer promotion approvals…

These administrative military tasks ultimately fell under Thaddeus’s purview.

Furthermore, Thaddeus’s direct influence over the military was considerable.

While ordinary officers and commanders held little sway over him, the political commissars, who played a crucial role within the Alliance’s military, were formally under his leadership.

While their primary responsibility was to oversee the ideological development of individual units, they didn’t exercise command authority. Within a unit, their priority for succession to command was lower than that of their deputies and chiefs of staff. However, the commissar’s unique position lay in his power to disregard any prior authority and assume command of an entire unit in an emergency. If they believe a military commander has betrayed, deserted, or shown signs of fear of battle, they can even execute him.

While such cases are rare, the military commander and the political commander generally work well together within the military. And if such a situation does occur, the corresponding political commissar will be subject to rigorous scrutiny afterward.

However, this extraordinary power exists, and no one can ignore its dual leadership within a unit.

If even a single political commissar can be subject to this, then what about Thaddeus, the political commissar of the entire military? His authority extends beyond military branches, and the position of political commissar now also exists within the Alliance Navy.

For example, admirals within the Alliance Navy, whether battleship captains or fleet commanders, or commanders-in-chief like Yan Fangxu within the Army, while holding similar ranks and perhaps holding similar status, naturally lack the influence of Thaddeus, who holds the broader purview of Thaddeus.

What merits and abilities does a mere Rong Lin possess to merit his attention?

Indeed, there are some.

First, Ronglin Star lies on a crucial route east and north of the Steel Fire Dragon Star Region.

Second, Jason Morgan, overcoming countless obstacles over the past four years, mobilized his own connections, those of his wife, and his sister-in-law, and begged for resources to build Ronglin Star Port.

Every time he visited Ronglin Star Port, Morgan felt a surge of pride.

This was his achievement.

Frankly speaking, Ronglin Star Port wasn’t particularly large, compared to the core worlds of the Alliance like Feiyi Star, Yunluo Star, and Angry Owl Star.

It was roughly a second-tier starport in the Dragon Eagle Star Region, or even weaker.

However, compared to Ronglin Star’s own level of development, this port’s specifications far exceeded its needs.

Given Ronglin Star’s relatively weak economic foundation, why would Jason Morgan, at the cost of everything, expand the port to this extent? Wouldn’t it be better to invest resources in other economic development paths?

The reason lies in the first point.

Given the advantage of a strategic transportation hub, Morgan foresaw that trade between Jindi Star and the Alliance would increase in the future, with many worlds previously under the control of the Mingyang Sect now under the Alliance’s control. Consequently, a distribution center for goods shipped from Jindi Star and to the Alliance would greatly improve efficiency.

This was exactly what he sought.

Recently, with the completion of a large starport, his plan was finally beginning to bear fruit.

He personally flew to Jindi Star and met with Sage Wu Jiarong. Although unfamiliar, he shamelessly requested one thing: instead of delivering cargo directly to every destination, the Mingyang Sect’s transport ships could simply bring cargo to nearby Ronglin Star. Ronglin Star had contacted several chambers of commerce and was even experimenting with establishing their own caravans to handle distribution to other planets.

Similarly, those chambers of commerce that had signed agreements hoped to have their cargo shipped from Jindi Star unloaded at Ronglin.

As a distribution center, Ronglin Star could profit significantly. Building a chamber of commerce, maintaining the starship, and spending on personnel rest and recuperation all cost money, all of which could boost the local economy.

Currently, a prototype of this system has taken shape.

But Morgan felt it wasn’t enough; he felt it could be accelerated.

Thus, he secured a prime opportunity for publicity.

General Thaddeus hadn’t arrived yet, but the item he valued most had already arrived.

Jason Morgan and Planetary Governor Paulson were together in the starport, admiring the two behemoths docked at Ronglin Port:

the Steel Wing and the Ronglin!

These were two Dragon Snake-class battlecruisers, built on Jindi and delivered to the Alliance!

Like other cargo and raw material shipments, they were first brought to Ronglin Port by the Mechanicus to free up their shipyard. Subsequently, the Mingyang Cult crew withdrew, leaving only a few essential technicians behind. They would be delivered to the Alliance along with the ships.

The delivery location was Ronglin Planet. Thaddeus had come to Ronglin Star, of course, as the highest leader of the Alliance’s Armament Management Department, to negotiate the transfer of these two battlecruisers to the Mingyang Sect.

(End of Chapter)