Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 722

Chapter 720: How great is your contribution, how deep is your love for me

Jason Morgan is also a veteran of the Alliance.

When the Alliance was first established on the Wrathful Owl Star, Jason Morgan was the head of the first province established.

He is indeed a very capable person, and if nothing unexpected happened, his future career would have been smooth sailing.

Unfortunately, the first major corruption case within the Alliance occurred under his leadership. Although he himself had no faults, he still bore the responsibility for his leadership, which greatly affected his future career advancement.

Otherwise, he would have been a ministerial-level official at the Alliance Center by now.

But he is a seasoned veteran, and his abilities have been continuously improved through the process of managing planets and sectors. He performed particularly well in the Steel Fire Dragon sector.

They secured an Alliance battlecruiser and named it after Ronglin, the Steel Fire Dragon’s capital. This earned them considerable prestige, won over the local population, and made them proud of the Alliance. They then established connections with the most important world in the Steel Fire Dragon region: the Forge World of Jindi.

In the past, under the conventional imperial system, while the Steel Fire Dragon’s many worlds were under Imperial jurisdiction, their proximity to the Forge World naturally exposed them to significant influence.

This wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

The oilmen of the Forge Worlds never took places outside their homelands seriously. These places served as barriers protecting the Forge Worlds, as sources of resources, as fiefs for knight families, and as places of exile for those who lost in struggles…

but ultimately, they weren’t places to be properly developed.

The crude, predatory management of these worlds had led to unsatisfactory development.

The Alliance would certainly not allow this situation to continue.

The Mingyang Cult initially complained, but soon gave up. All they wanted was security and abundant resources. The Alliance can fully guarantee both of these points, so there’s no need to continue holding onto these planets.

The advantages of the Steel Fire Dragon Star Region’s proximity to Jin Di Star have become apparent: they can undertake a significant number of services for Jin Di Star, from providing consumer goods to providing services and even exporting labor. Furthermore

, they can also receive a large amount of foreign investment from Jin Di Star, or attract investment, and then take on some low-end industrial orders from Jin Di Star.

Furthermore, they can serve as a transit point for trade between the Alliance and the Ming Yang Sect…

With minimal central development funding from the Alliance, Jason Morgan has effectively leveraged his geographical advantages to rapidly industrialize and commercialize the numerous worlds in the Steel Fire Dragon Star Region.

After more than a decade of development, the Steel Fire Dragon Star Region has become second only to Qimadi and Yunluo Center in the Dragon Eagle Star Region. There’s a subtle sign of it becoming a third center. Its momentum is no longer limited to the Steel Fire Dragon Star Region itself, but has also spread to two or three surrounding star regions that were once under the Ming Yang Sect’s sphere of influence.

In this series of work, Jason Morgan’s own outstanding leadership played an indispensable role.

It is natural for local governors with ability, qualifications and achievements to be promoted.

The stains of the past can no longer prevent him from taking another step forward.

Now, he has taken office as the governor of the Fox Moon Star Region.

The first thing he did when he arrived in the Fox Moon Star Region was to analyze the fundamentals of Fox Moon and the goals he wanted to achieve, so that he would know how to carry out the subsequent work.

His most important and core goal is to improve productivity.

Whether he wants to ensure that the Fox Moon Star Region government can have more fiscal surpluses in the future or to improve the overall quality of life of the people in the Fox Moon Star Region, he needs stronger productivity support.

And to improve productivity, it is necessary to improve the control of the new alliance star region government over the entire star region.

Jason Morgan saw those local forces—companies, landlords, feudal lords, and remnants of the imperial bureaucracy—as obstacles to his development of productivity. He longed to eliminate them all at once, dispatching civil servants and administrative officials from the Alliance’s core to take over the entire star region so he could paint smoothly.

But that was clearly impossible.

To completely eliminate these groups would take countless years. It wasn’t impossible, but it took too long, and his achievements in the Fox Moon Star Region would be more than just mediocre. He might even be deeply disappointed by the Alliance Central Committee.

To quickly harness the power of the entire star region, negotiation, compromise, and exchange of interests were essential.

He had to endure it,

even if it meant holding his nose. Forbearance is the best way to serve the country.

Jason Morgan was quite experienced in this area.

A large part of his decades of work involved dealing with stubborn, conservative interest groups.

In particular, many of his experiences were universal, as the political landscape was similar: the region he assumed leadership of was newly occupied by the Alliance, and the Alliance held full authority over it.

Previously, Gu Hang was the head of the Dragon Eagle Star Region, appointed by the Imperial Central Government. As the appointed head of the sector, Jason Morgan naturally held the highest legitimacy. Currently, in the Fox Moon Star Region, he was also appointed by Gu Hang, the chairman of the Cosmic Domain, and his legitimacy was equally unshakable.

Furthermore, the Fox Moon Star Region was conquered by the Alliance through military force. Although it wasn’t a major battlefield, the daily battle reports allowed even the most prominent figures in the region to clearly understand the evolving situation.

The Iron Armor Group and the Alfonzo Cult, once regal figures in the eyes of these local powers, were

now utterly crushed by the Alliance.

The Zerg War, which engulfed thousands of worlds throughout the Spider Web Universe, also terrified them. The mere spillover of aftermath and the slightest infection had already left these local forces in a state of panic.

They knew that the infection in other star regions of the Spider Web Universe was far more severe than the one they had encountered. Even so, the Alliance suppressed it all, and despite being at a disadvantage, they defeated the Zerg.

The entire fifteen-year war—the duration of which wasn’t even important; the intensity of the fighting during those fifteen years was simply beyond imagination!

After the dust settled, the Alliance triumphed, and Gu Hang secured the most legitimate right to rule, how could the local forces in the Fox Moon Star Region even harbor the slightest desire to oppose the Alliance?

Even though the Alliance’s military presence in the Fox Moon Star Region was small, they remained very obedient.

This was also reflected in the warm welcome Jason Morgan received upon his arrival as the star region leader.

This mentality greatly facilitated Jason Morgan’s work. Regardless of the local leaders’ inner thoughts, at least on the surface, they were polite, even fawning. A significant number of them clearly understood the broader situation and desperately sought to cling to the Alliance’s powerful support.

I’m loyal too, and I want progress!

But revolution isn’t just a dinner party. Alliance-based institutional reforms will undoubtedly harm these interest groups.

In fact, alliance-based reforms will dismantle these groups, essentially destroying them.

Alliance-based reforms will allow the leaders of these interest groups to enjoy preferential treatment, suddenly ascend to high ranks, enjoy comfortable food and clothing, and even maintain a relatively luxurious lifestyle.

However, the income these ranks provide will be nothing compared to their previous gains.

In the past, some groups controlled entire planets, others controlled interstellar caravans, and some controlled monopolies across multiple planets…

In short, they exploited tens, hundreds, or even billions of people, or monopolized entire markets or even a single resource across a star system.

How much money would that entail?

How much power would that entail?

Fine clothing and delicacies? A life of luxury? And it’s more than that! It also entails a lofty position, second only to the emperor and above millions! The power to decide life and death, the authority to decide the world with a single word!

Right now, even if they were given a rank, even an A-rank, they’d only earn a few thousand tax coins a year… a huge difference.

Even so, do they

still want to improve? Most people do.

Otherwise, are they just waiting to be overthrown? While

they may not have the upper hand in matters of justice, militarily, despite the Alliance’s current limited manpower, it’s more than enough to suppress individual factions. Even if they truly possess the ability to link up and ignite a planet-spanning rebellion, the ultimate outcome would undoubtedly draw the Alliance’s vast forces, leading to even more forceful suppression and crushing them.

There’s no need for that.

Even if they were overthrown, it wouldn’t mean

they were truly dead. The experienced Jason Morgan pressed the weak spots of these interest groups, pushing them just below the line that was most painful, but upon closer inspection, not completely unacceptable. He applied pressure at a seemingly extreme, yet in reality, quite safe, level.

Giving up even a little bit of ground would be like giving up everything.

The most stubborn ones were dealt with;

those who were less cooperative and more evasive were suppressed;

and those who were more cooperative were given some sweet treats, such as retaining their businesses and having all employees transferred to high-ranking positions within the alliance. The original controllers could then continue to control the companies after the transfers. They could also take over the businesses and market share left behind by the stubborn elements.

With both the stick and the sweet treat, coupled with the unstoppable momentum and Jason Morgan’s own extensive experience and skillful tactics…

In short, everything was somewhat difficult, yet progressed remarkably quickly.

Political issues are essentially issues of distribution.

Jason Morgan had been waging political battles for six months, and to put it bluntly, he had managed to reclaim as much of the Fox Moon Star Region’s pie as possible. He had also changed the situation from one where interest groups took the lion’s share, the government took the smaller share, and the people generally lived in dire straits, to one where the alliance government took the lion’s share. People’s living standards were generally rising due to the rationing of positions, and interest groups were brutally suppressed and dismantled.

This state of affairs is inherently unstable, relying on the Alliance’s power to carry it through.

But that doesn’t matter; as long as power works, it’s all that matters.

The contradictions caused by the reforms, no matter how enormous, can be contained within the impenetrable pressure cooker of Alliance power, preventing them from erupting.

As long as they don’t erupt too quickly, Jason Morgan has every confidence he can find a pressure relief valve and gradually release the pressure over a longer period of time.

More specifically, this involves cultivating new interest groups—the countless people who benefit from the new job system, and the countless people who, through subsequent promotions, have ascended to positions of power within the Alliance that were previously unthinkable. These include bureaucrats, new entrepreneurs, civil servants with new technical expertise, and engineering groups…

If they can’t rebel now, then over time, as the Alliance’s job system becomes more deeply ingrained and as Alliance cultural propaganda spreads, these reactionaries will become increasingly unable to rebel.

The responsibility for this cultural outreach and public education falls to his wife,

Hale Si Morgan, another Alliance veteran. It was her insistence that Jason Morgan embark on a career in government and join the Alliance.

Later, Hels herself became the Director of Ideological Education at the first Zhongci Academy on Wrathful Owl. She later became the principal, and then joined the Alliance’s Education Department.

She and Jason Morgan lived apart for a long period of time, during his time in the Steel Fire Dragon sector.

For a decade or so, they could only communicate through letters during supply transport, supplemented by occasional Star Talk Tower communications. A

round trip from the Pegasus sector to the Steel Fire Dragon sector took a month, and given the nature of their work, finding a month to travel was incredibly difficult. They only met twice, both times when Hels used her saved vacation time to visit Jason.

It was only thanks to the Alliance’s modest development of the system’s civil aviation industry during the war that they would have rarely seen each other.

Jason worried that their relationship would sour due to their long separation.

Helsinki sensed this, and when she first came to meet him, she said something that Jason Morgan would remember deeply:

“The greater your contribution to the Alliance, the deeper your love for me.”

As expected of a professor who came from an ideological education background and trained political commissars at Zhongsi College.

And this time, Helsinki was also appointed. The organization generally tends to keep families together, and it just so happens that in the Fox Moon Star Region, an education system radiating from there to the east of the Spider Web Universe is also needed.

Helsinki followed.

She will establish Zhongsi College to train a new generation of Alliance members locally.

She will also establish a cultural propaganda organization to publicize the glory of the Alliance to the public.

Movies, TV programs, radio, newspapers, novels, music…all are media that can be used.

With a multi-pronged approach, the couple will surely make the future of the Fox Moon Star Region brighter!

(End of this chapter)