Chapter 14: Chapter 14, Hypoxia
Don’t get me wrong, Gu Hang certainly didn’t lose his mind to think that, with just over four hundred people and four armored vehicles, he could take down Revival City by force.
That’s unrealistic.
Revival City is the capital of the Alliance, a place with a permanent population of one hundred and thirty thousand residents and more than ten times that number in refugees who rely on the city for sustenance. It directly or indirectly controls countless small and large survivor settlements in the surrounding areas, numbering in the hundreds.
The conventional military force comprises tens of thousands of fully armed soldiers, a significant number of cannons, locally produced tanks, and propeller aircraft. If needed, they could even conscript a number of mercenaries far exceeding their regular armed forces at any time.
The difference in military strength is too great.
However, Gu Hang’s intention to take over Revival City didn’t necessarily rely on military means.
At least not on the army.
The four hundred men at his command would indeed be like eggs striking a stone if they sought to trouble Revival City. But in orbit, the Quintet floated there, with its Starship Colossal Cannon aimed at Revival City, and the power of orbital bombardment was enough to erase the city from the surface of the planet within a day.
This was the greatest military deterrent.
Another point was the use of political means starting with legitimacy.
Moreover, Gu Hang was the planetary governor, and the Alliance Government was theoretically the only legitimate authority on Rage Owl Star, so he naturally was the highest leader of the Alliance. Before him, every planetary governor who came to this planet was based in Revival City, inheriting the Alliance authority, and thus exercising the power of the governor.
Actually, that’s precisely what Gu Hang did initially.
When he first obtained the system and wanted to secure a piece of territory for himself, he thought he had the perfect start. After landing, the entire planet was his territory—wouldn’t the fixed income from the system be maxed out? And with the help of the system, no matter what trouble he encountered on the planet, it would all be easy to deal with. After farming for a couple of years, would he be unable to pay the taxes?
Reality quickly slapped him in the face.
After landing, he was warmly welcomed, but the system didn’t make any movement at all. It didn’t acknowledge his nominal leadership over Revival City, let alone the whole planet.
As a result, Gu Hang, the esteemed governor, went off to do his own thing.
He had actually given this some thought.
Firstly, if the system didn’t recognize his territory, then without any territory, he wouldn’t be able to activate the system’s abilities or receive any income. If the system wasn’t useful, then of course he had to find a way to make it useful, otherwise what’s the point of having a golden finger?
Secondly, the system not recognizing the territory indicated that there were huge problems in Revival City. It would be very difficult for him to obtain real power through political maneuvers. Gu Hang didn’t think that he, a transmigrator who had never learned any techniques of power struggle, had the capability to outsmart those local power brokers.
Even with the Quintet in space it was useless, as orbital bombardment was a last resort; could he really flatten Revival City to the ground? That would be mutual destruction. Unless it was the end, or he needed a scapegoat, he wouldn’t resort to it—it was at best a deterrent.
Thirdly, based on the first two points, he basically understood the core issues the former governors couldn’t solve on Rage Owl Star. Apart from the planet inherently having a harsh environment, dangerous conditions, and insufficient productive forces, there was likely another reason they couldn’t fully and completely grasp power.
The objective conditions were already poor, and internal strife just made it impossible to develop and submit the imperial taxes normally.
Gu Hang couldn’t walk down the same old path; otherwise, there was little hope.
It was because of these multifaceted considerations that he decided to set out and start anew.
But this didn’t mean that he didn’t want Revival City.
It was the largest gathering place nearby, with abundant manpower, a developed light industry system, and a commercial trade exchange hub.
Gu Hang still needed to take it, and he couldn’t drag it out for too long, or relying solely on his own slow development, he would indeed not be able to pay the taxes in two years and face execution.
He had roughly sketched out a plan.
“Get me connected to Revival City,” Gu Hang called out.
“Yes!” Zhang Chao responded loudly and set about operating the radio.
He was the only person who followed Gu Hang from his family, a clever young man who served as Gu Hang’s attendant.
Before long, the communication was established, and an exhausted-sounding, aged voice came through the radio’s loudspeaker, “Greetings, Governor, this is Revival City, I am Milian Hodgson.”
The elderly man claiming to be Milian Hodgson had met Gu Hang once when he had just landed on the planet.
This dignified old man was the chairman of the Alliance Council and served as the de facto ruler of Revival City during the absence of the planet’s governor. After the new governor took office, he was supposed to step back into an advisory role.
However, it was clear that Gu Hang, the unorthodox governor, had completely caught Hodgson off guard.
Tired at heart.
In front of Hodgson, Gu Hang was far less courteous than he had been when speaking to Yelisia. He was not interested in persuading him with emotion or reason but made his demands in the tone of a command:
“I need a hundred tons of food, ten thousand sets of textiles and clothing, and various types of industrial consumer goods. I will send you a list, and you are to deliver it to my camp within a week.”
As his words ended, there was no response from the other end for quite a while.
Gu Hang’s brow furrowed: “Respond!”
He was clearly dissatisfied.
A hesitant young voice responded from the other side, “Go… Governor… the chairman, he… he…”
“What happened to him?”
“The chairman has fainted!”
“Uh…”
Gu Hang’s first reaction was disbelief.
It’s not so easy to faint, and I’ve only asked for a tiny bit of stuff.
However, judging by the chaos coming through the radio, it seemed to hold some truth.
His second reaction was a twinge of guilt.
Is it not great to be so provocative?
Then the third reaction was, “To hell with guilt, he deserves it.”
He did it on purpose. To provoke Hodgson into fainting was unintended, but it was no big deal.
Gu Hang cleared his throat and continued, “Anyway, you’ve heard my demands. This is an order from the governor. The supplies must not fall short, and they must not be late. That’s all.”
…
About forty minutes later, Revival City, Inner City Council Hall.
The silver-haired old man was gasping for air with an oxygen mask strapped to his face.
After regaining consciousness, Hodgson had convened the Alliance Council and publicly informed all the councilmen of the governor’s demands.
The council was in an uproar, with the members arguing loudly amongst themselves.
The headache worsened for Hodgson, still wearing the oxygen mask, as his vision periodically darkened.
He sadly thought that if this continued, he really wouldn’t live much longer.
He had to forcefully pound on the table for several minutes before the room slowly quieted down.
He took a deep breath of oxygen, then slowly removed his mask, and continued, “Continuing to argue will not produce any results, let’s vote. I want to see how many of you have the courage to defy the governor’s orders under the muzzle of the empire’s cruiser’s orbital cannon.”