Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 815

Chapter 809, 27 Years of Dark Expedition

safe zone policy, proposed by the Dark Side Expedition Command, will inevitably have to be reviewed by Gu Hang.

Gu Hang fully endorses this policy, believing it to be a viable solution to the current situation.

He will see how it works in the core areas of the Magre domain.

If necessary, the policy could be extended to the entire Dark Side Expedition.

Currently, the Dark Side Expedition has been underway for 27 years. The primary battlefield remains the Magre domain.

However, beyond the Magre domain, the Alliance has also expanded operations in four other domains:

the Devouring Star domain and the Infinite domain in the north, the Advance domain southwest of Magre, and the Ardan domain west of the Eastern domain.

Including Magre itself, the Dark Side Expedition has now spread to five domains.

The situations in these five domains must be discussed separately, as they differ.

The Magre domain has essentially been fully recovered. The core area controlled by the Archavon royal family is the final major domain. Its capture essentially marked the end of the expedition to the Magray Space.

Of the more than 5,000 worlds in the Magray Space, 98% had been recovered. The remaining hundred or so worlds, scattered across the region, could be handled by a detachment from the main fleet to handle the remaining operations, without disrupting the overall situation.

Of course, those recovered worlds weren’t without their problems. Not to mention the worlds implementing the Safe Zone policy, which comprised the majority of ordinary worlds, they still faced significant challenges.

According to the Alliance government’s estimates, the Magray Space would generate a total negative revenue of 21 trillion NT dollars for the Alliance over the next ten years.

If the Alliance governed this space according to the traditional Imperial methods, such a burden wouldn’t be so high. It

could even be profitable.

After all, the traditional Imperial model left local planets to their own governance. The Empire refrained from interfering too much unless there was a need—except for collecting Imperial taxes.

Wouldn’t it be profitable simply to collect taxes without shouldering the cost of governance?

It would be like implementing a Safe Zone policy similar to the Alliance’s on all worlds in the Magray Space.

But Gu Hang disdained this approach.

What was the point of such a recovery?

They didn’t expect the worlds recovered by the Dark Side Expedition to reach the level of the Alliance’s homeland, but they at least hoped they could reach the level of the Eastern Realm.

It was precisely because of this expectation that the Alliance was willing to incur enormous financial losses and the immense costs of governing these worlds.

Investment, infrastructure, Chaos corruption management, industrial development… ten years of losses, so be it.

As long as the five thousand worlds in the Magre Realm could be turned profitable and put on the right track within ten years, as planned by the Alliance’s central government, their future development would increase exponentially year by year, transforming them from a financial burden on the Alliance into another engine for the Dark Side Expedition.

The Forward Realm, southwest of the Magre Realm, was actually the offensive direction led by Marshal Yan Fangxu. A few years ago, when they had completely crushed the Magre Realm, some vanguard troops entered the Forward Realm and launched a preemptive operation there.

Now that the primary challenges in the Magre Realm have been resolved, the main force of the Dark Side Crusade will move into the Forward Realm.

This realm, encompassing seven star regions and three thousand worlds, is considered medium-sized compared to other realms. Yan Fangxu estimates that it will take approximately fifteen years to conquer it, less time than the Magre Realm and faster progress.

The operations targeting the Magre Realm and the Forward Realm generally constitute the Western Front of the Expedition.

The northern front of the Expedition encompasses the Devouring Star Realm and the Infinite Realm.

These two realms are the southeasternmost of the northern territories.

When the Great Rift formed, three star regions from each were torn into this area.

Originally, these realms were not planned for the first phase of the Dark Side Crusade. Given their proximity to the Scarlet Scar, their Chaos corruption would likely be more severe, making their capture more challenging.

However, the Battle of the Oath Star dealt the Alliance a blow.

If you ignore them, these edited locations near the Crimson Scar will truly create a major crisis for you.

Try to avoid difficulties, and they will find you.

Leaving them alone, treating those worlds as buffer zones or quarantine zones, quickly proved a failure. The Alliance shifted gears, planning to proactively bring those worlds under its control and manage the borders themselves. The

Alliance forces fighting the Oath of Alliance were already half-depleted, but that didn’t matter. Half of the troops from the subsequent, even more powerful Fourth Expeditionary Fleet were deployed to the northern front, bringing the force to a level comparable to that of the previous Oath of Alliance campaign.

The Dark Side Expedition Northern Command was thus officially established, with General Li Kexi as its commander-in-chief.

The Northern Command had two missions: to recapture the six star regions encompassing the Infinite Sector and the Devouring Universe, estimated to encompass approximately three thousand worlds.

The other was to establish a broad, powerful defense line beyond the Alliance’s northern borders to eliminate any potential threats emanating from the Crimson Scar.

Of the two missions, the latter is far more important.

So far, after twenty-seven years of expeditions, the Northern Front has captured over four hundred worlds.

Compared to the Western Front, this number is far less.

On average, the Western Front captures a world every two days. And on the Northern Front, it takes almost a month to capture one.

The difference is significant.

This isn’t due to poor performance on the Northern Front, but rather the sheer magnitude of the challenge.

Many of the worlds encountered on the Northern Front are at the point where they would need to establish safe zones under the Western Front’s safe zone policy. The number of worlds requiring extermination orders is also far greater than on the Western Front.

The safe zone policy, which Gu Hang admires, was actually proposed long ago on the Northern Front, but it never became mainstream.

The primary reason is the different circumstances.

If the Western Front’s standards were applied, most worlds on the Northern Front would have to implement the safe zone policy, and even if they did, a significant number wouldn’t be able to maintain it on their own.

But on the Northern Front, the need to establish a defensive line necessitates the loss of a significant number of worlds.

Then we have to tackle them one by one, and the efficiency will definitely not be as high as on the Western Front.

Furthermore, there was the need to deal with the enemies that periodically emerged from the Scarlet Scar. While it wasn’t as dramatic a target as the Battle of the Covenant, where a demon prince was created and an entire planet’s worth of troops was sacrificed as bait, the small warbands and demonic rift hordes that appeared one after another were a problem.

They weren’t numerous, and generally didn’t form large armies. However, these elite small units were even more troublesome. They caused considerable damage, and their capture was extremely difficult. Even if they were captured, destroying them was not easy. They could easily escape at the slightest sign of danger, making them a real challenge to deal with.

This not only slowed progress on the northern front, but also led to a much higher intensity of fighting and a consistently high casualty rate, consistently the highest of the three fronts.

After fighting like this for nearly seven years, the Alliance felt they could no longer hold out. It wasn’t that they couldn’t hold on, but rather that the continued heavy support provided to the northern front had resulted in a slow recovery. In fact, even if they were recovered, the prospects for future development were not promising…

This prompted the Alliance Central Committee, after thorough discussion, to adjust their strategy. Regarding the northern front, there’s no longer a need to recapture more worlds. A single defensive line defending the Alliance’s north, a buffer zone of approximately three hundred worlds, is sufficient.

Three hundred worlds certainly can’t completely shield the Alliance’s northern front. In reality, achieving this goal would require around six hundred worlds. But three hundred worlds would barely cover it. Furthermore, and most crucially, even if a major Chaos enemy were to arrive and insist on attacking the Alliance’s homeland, it’s possible, but they could be cut off from the rear and surrounded at any moment.

Establishing a flat “Great Space Wall” of three hundred worlds, spanning four star regions, would essentially secure the northern front.

This would allow the northern front to focus on maintenance, significantly reducing the need to recapture worlds.

While this might sound a bit unfair to the outside world, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Having considered the northern front, the southern front remains.

The situation there is actually much simpler.

Eleven years ago, with the war on the western front progressing smoothly and without major problems, Gu Hang ordered the reassignment of a portion of the fleet from the western front, turning south from the Magre domain. Simultaneously, a newly assembled expeditionary force launched from the eastern domain and attacked westward.

Their target was the Adan domain.

This domain, comprising eight star regions and 2,700 worlds, is a small to medium-sized domain. To date, 60%

of it had been conquered. There had been no significant incidents. Having fought the expedition for ten years, the Alliance had become largely familiar with operations on the southern front.

Recently, the southern front was even preparing to advance towards the Guangjin domain, south of the Adan domain.

In total, the Dark Side Expedition, from its initial cautious deployment of three fleets, has grown to encompass three headquarters, dozens of fronts, hundreds of squadrons, and countless battles raging simultaneously every day.

Over the past 27 years, the total number of worlds recovered by the Dark Side Crusade has approached the 7,000 mark, almost matching the number of worlds within the Alliance itself. Including the seven star regions of the Eastern Universe, the total number of worlds controlled by the Imperial Dark Side Control Committee should surpass 17,000.

It can now be said that the Dark Side Crusade has officially entered its climax after its early stages.

This so-called “climax” is a term coined by the Alliance’s propaganda department to boost morale.

To some extent, it’s not entirely wrong. The 7,000 worlds conquered over the past 27 years are already a milestone achievement. Going forward, the Alliance will further expand the Crusade’s efforts, or at least maintain its current scale. This means that the Dark Side Crusade’s rate of world recovery will be even faster than in the past 27 years.

While Gu Hang had no objection to the Alliance’s propaganda department creating a hype to bolster confidence and continue to promote the Dark Side Crusade, he himself remained unfazed by such hype.

Instead, he became even more cautious.

With highs comes lows.

When will the low come?

No one knows.

But Gu Hang hopes it’s as late as possible.

His goal is to bring the entire Dark Side of the Empire under the control of the Control Council. The entire Dark Side of the Empire is nearly half the size of the Empire, totaling twenty-five cosmic regions. Currently, the Alliance has full control over only three, and only semi-controls one more. That leaves most of the targets.

If we consider this the peak phase, how long will it last?

Four hundred years? Five hundred years? Or even longer?

This is the crucial question: How long can Gu Hang keep the Dark Side expedition going?

Even after only twenty-seven years, Gu Hang can already see some problems.

The pressure on the Alliance’s homeland is considerable.

Fleets are being built one after another, the Queen of Glory is deployed to the front lines, and the army is constantly being depleted on countless planets simultaneously at war. Even for elite units like the Space Marines, the annual losses are staggering.

All of this needs to be replenished.

Gu Hang earned a ton of Grace Points, but they were quickly spent.

They were used to replenish military units, recruit Space Marines, expand his talent pool to support his rapidly expanding rule, and exchange for factories and buildings to boost production…

Saving them for technology draws?

There was no way he could save any.

Of course, if there were any draws, that would be the best. In fact, Gu Hang quietly saved a little between each large Grace Point spending spree, entering the technology draws.

But nothing crucial came of it.

This gradually made Gu Hang realize that the system had its limits. For example, in his case, the system had raised him to Level 9 and then stopped. That was only the strength of an S-rank psyker. His subsequent advancements were solely due to the self-improvement he’d gained after obtaining the essence of the Warp, as well as the passive faith and trust of countless people as the Alliance’s rule expanded.

The same was true with technology.

In the system’s tech tree, the Apocalypse level was the upper limit. Gu Hang had recently drawn a few, but they couldn’t bring about a qualitative change.

What the Alliance needed most right now wasn’t technology.

More people, more resources, and most importantly, more time.

He didn’t know if he could catch up.

He always felt a suffocating sense of time being extremely tight.

(End of this chapter)