When will the Dragonhawk Third Legion arrive?
Gu Hang initiated contact with his mother.
Not even in the mood for pleasantries, Gu Hang asked directly, “What exactly did the Fatches Family say? Today is the deadline of the ultimatum. Two days ago, I asked you to convey my attitude to them, and this is the last time I’m asking this question. I must know what their answer is.”
Gu Hang expressed his dissatisfaction forcefully.
Miss Wang Qi appeared somewhat helpless: “Their answer this time is a bit different from the last. Before, they kept saying that the Dragonhawk Third Legion was only stationed on three of Fatches’ planets and that the Fatches Family had no power to deploy this legion of the Star Realm Armed Forces, merely saying they would try their best to coordinate, lobby, and strive to send troops. Now, at least they’re not giving those excuses anymore and have firmly promised to deploy forces, with no less than a million… “
“What is this supposed to mean? What about the timing?” Gu Hang immediately interrupted his mother. Although it was impolite, he couldn’t help it.
“They didn’t say; my people are still discussing it with them.”
“Ridiculous!” Gu Hang angrily made a final demand: “If the Dragonhawk Third Legion hasn’t left Fatches’ planets within ten hours, then I’ll take it as a refusal of our goodwill by the Fatches Family. I swear, in the upcoming conflict with Blackbird Heavy Industries, I will certainly find irrefutable evidence of the Fatches Family’s full involvement with the Iron Men Rebellion!”
“Uh…” The color drained from Wang Qi’s face, and she said in a low voice, “Isn’t this being a bit too aggressive?”
“I’ve had enough of their evasions and delays. We’re not allies with them, but we still informed them immediately of the connection between Blackbird and the Iron Men Rebellion, allowing them to avoid being passive. We might even offend the heads at Pei Desi because of this. This is a gesture of goodwill from me, from the Gu Family. And this is how they repay us?”
Wang Qi sighed and said firmly, “I understand.”
After ending the call with his mother, Gu Hang then called the head of the military department, Tadeusz, and Alliance Premier Osenia, to inform them to be ready with contingency plans.
Ten hours wasn’t just empty talk or boasting from Gu Hang. If he issued a warning, he naturally had the capability to make it a reality.
Blackbird was a Fatches Family enterprise, and their full cooperation was difficult to clean up without Gu Hang’s assistance. And if Gu Hang wouldn’t cooperate and instead made trouble for them, “discovering” some special evidence, their trouble would become quite significant. Especially since the Gu Family possessed their own political capital, and Pei Desi would be more than happy to lend a hand.
Moreover, even without the assistance of the Star Realm Armed Forces, Gu Hang could annihilate Blackbird despite the casualties.
It would simply mean escalating the mobilization order to level one and reinforcing with more than four hundred thousand. Gu Hang would have to pay four thousand points of favor to train these four hundred thousand into qualified soldiers.
Apart from training, equipping them with sufficient weaponry would require that the Alliance’s industrial power shift completely from civilian to military industry.
The contingency plan he tasked Osenia and Tadeusz to prepare was exactly this.
With this approach, adding the existing forces, it was estimated that Blackbird could be overcome within half a year.
There would be a huge number of casualties, not just among the soldiers, but also among the civilian population of the western mainland. Transitioning to military industry on a large scale would also affect the Alliance’s industrial development.
But if this price had to be paid, then it would be paid. Gu Hang would make sure the Fatches Family paid tenfold, a hundredfold in return.
Luckily, this situation did not come to pass.
Three hours later, Miss Wang Qi relayed the latest news to him.
Wang Qi had personally communicated with the leader of the Fatches Family, Ivan Fatches. Besides fully conveying Gu Hang’s stance, she also made their position clear as the head of the Gu Family, with both a harsh threat and some negotiations of interest.
Ultimately, the Fatches Family found themselves with no room left for delay.
They promised to comply with Gu Hang’s request and, within ten hours—now seven—send the first batch of Star Realm Armed Forces troops aboard Gu Commercial Firm’s merchant vessels docked at Fatches II’s Starport.
Transporting a million troops isn’t easy. The first contingent to arrive was expected to be over twenty divisions, no fewer than three hundred thousand troops. They would embark on Gu Commercial Firm’s ‘Jumbelly’ transport ships, flanked by armed merchant vessels, heading for Rage Owl Star.
Hearing this news, Gu Hang breathed a sigh of relief.
Good. It seemed the Alliance would not need to issue the level one mobilization order after all.
Of course, he didn’t cancel the contingency plan immediately.
The Fatches Family had a history.
Gu Hang needed his mother to give him concrete news. Seven hours later, whether the Star Realm troops had begun boarding or not.
If Fatches had deceived him and the matter was still dragging on, then everything would be called off, and Gu Hang would no longer count on additional reinforcements.
This time, Fatches had been given ample warning and did not dare to play tricks anymore.
In fact, soldiers from the Star Realm Army began boarding the starport and entering the transport ships that had been waiting there, just eight hours after the final warning had been issued.
Boarding would take some time, and from the Fatches Star System to the Rage Owl Star System, the journey also required time.
Overall, this first batch of support troops from the Star Realm Army would arrive at Rage Owl Star in twenty-two days.
This was quite a relief.
Gu Hang could finally breathe a sigh of relief and shared this intelligence with Yan Fangxu, who was commanding the operations in the Western War Zone.
Yan Fangxu was overjoyed.
Having strong reinforcements was, of course, very good. If possible, he did not want his own troops to engage in a bloodbath.
He made up his mind that, for the next twenty or so days, he would focus on stability, reducing losses as much as possible, and wait for the Star Realm Army to arrive before advancing westward.
But before the Star Realm Army’s arrival, Rage Owl Star was to receive a group of other visitors from beyond the heavens.
The Imperial Tax Fleet.
The time had come for Rage Owl Star to pay its taxes.
The problem was that the Imperial Tax Rage Owl Star owed this year was still on the Western Front.
…
The Sun Lord’s Apostle of War, Bochoya Galaraldo, was aboard a destroyer, carrying a ‘giant belly’, en route to the Rage Owl Star System.
He stood at the window, having just passed through the vibrant beauty of the Star Realm Tunnel, which seemed to linger in his eyes, yet outside the window, the expanse had become an infinite starry sky.
Having traversed the Star Realm Tunnel, it would only take another day or two to reach Rage Owl Star.
“I’ve heard that this Rage Owl Star used to be a very rich resource garden planet?”
“Yes,” replied a no-nonsense woman standing next to him.
Her name was Nell Lavis, and she was the highest authority of this Tax Fleet, a senior official of the Imperial Taxation Department overseeing the entire tax affairs of the Dragonhawk Star Domain.
Her working model involved leading a gigantic Tax Fleet, escorted by the Dragonhawk Fleet, voyaging year-round throughout the thirty-seven star sectors of the whole Dragonhawk Star Domain. Circling the route to collect taxes typically took about a year and a half. She needed to calculate the tax collection intervals for each Star Sector, some being two years, others five, and even ten.
Then, after spending four months traveling, she would deliver the collected Imperial Taxes from the Dragonhawk Star Domain to a distribution center designated by the Eastern Cosmic Realm Government, the next higher level of administrative authority.
These taxes would then be distributed under the directives of the government of Holy Terra, in the Human Ancestral Star’s capital, to various places in need.
And after delivering the taxes, Lois would immediately head back to the Dragonhawk Star Domain and start over by cruising through the thirty-seven star sectors to collect taxes… in an endless cycle.
In response to the Apostle of War’s question, Lois reminisced briefly, recalling some images, and said, “Indeed, when I had just started as the chief tax administrator of the Dragonhawk Star Domain, I came here to collect taxes. It indeed was a rare quality planet, but it’s a pity, a war over a hundred years ago completely destroyed Rage Owl Star.”
She was qualified to say so.
She had been in this line of work for one hundred and fifty years.
She was two hundred years old this year, yet still had the appearance of a middle-aged woman.
She had already undergone three life-extension surgeries and was about to go through her fourth.
When she had just started her tax work, she had indeed seen the most flourishing stature of Rage Owl Star.
She had also seen the worst state of Rage Owl Star and, in the last few decades, had personally ordered the execution of several governors on Rage Owl Star.