The tremendous expenditure indicated that Galaraldo, under the responsibilities of his own position, would harbor a great, insatiable “greed”—even if it wasn’t for his own benefit.
And after Galaraldo felt he had Gu Hang in his grasp, would he really be content with just the three hundred million in the future?
If Gu Hang appeared weak, would this guy seize any opportunity to extort him now and then using this or that pretext?
By then, the dividends of Rage Owl Star’s development and the hard-earned profits of the Gu Family would all fall prey to this man’s predatory exploitation.
This was something Gu Hang could not accept, and it was precisely the reason he had to eliminate him.
Time to get down to it!
But not now.
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He still had to wait until the man left Rage Owl Star before taking action.
…
Galaraldo and Lois didn’t have much time to waste on Rage Owl Star.
The two of them, one aimed to make money, and the other to collect taxes.
Lois had to traverse the entire Dragonhawk Star Domain, covering 37 Star Sectors and a total of 557 worlds within two years. On average, the maximum time he could wait in each Star Sector was just two or three weeks.
Galaraldo was even more pressed to make money, finding it difficult to stay in the same Cosmos Domain for more than a year or two. It was only because the Tianma Star Sector was relatively affluent that he was willing to stay a bit longer. As for poorer places, he wouldn’t even bother visiting them.
Rage Owl Star was an exception, as he saw it as a breakthrough point and a place to make money from the Gu Family behind Gu Hang.
After reviewing the troops and completing the appointment of a small legion, they were ready to leave.
Before Galaraldo departed, he left Gu Hang with a clear message:
“Mr. Gu, perhaps you don’t yet understand the significance of the Empire’s great cause for each individual, but I believe you will eventually comprehend and be willing to give everything to support the Sun Lord. I’ll be in the Tianma Star Sector for two weeks, waiting for your news.”
After saying these words, he ‘kindly’ did Gu Hang a favor.
A division of the Tax Fleet, consisting of three destroyers, circled Rage Owl Star’s orbit and on the other side, launched an orbital strike towards Blackbird City.
The core district of Blackbird City, which had held up remarkably well against the Blade Tiger, saw its energy shield turn from blue to red after just one barrage from the three destroyers.
This was the difference between an energy shield and a Void Shield. The latter, even if completely overloaded and turning red, could still intercept attacks within its capacity, with only those it couldn’t stop falling through. An energy shield, on the other hand, was utterly useless once breached.
Despite some orbital anti-air firepower within Blackbird City, it was clearly insufficient to fully stop the destroyers’ assault—they couldn’t even handle the Blade Tiger, let alone three destroyers.
At this point, if the destroyers in the sky put in a bit more effort and launched another round or two of attacks, the shield of Blackbird City’s core district would inevitably collapse. After that, even if the destroyers left, the Blade Tiger alone could destroy the heart of Blackbird City.
But at that moment, the three destroyers drifted away.
When Gu Hang received this news, he was furious, gritting his teeth.
Having refused Galaraldo’s extortion, he no longer expected the Tax Fleet to help solve the problem.
But the other party’s attitude was even more infuriating.
He could almost hear Galaraldo taunting him with a jesting laugh, “See, I could help you a lot, as long as you kneel down obediently.”
Gu Hang bowed his head submissively: “Very well, Apostle of War, thank you for the gift you left me before departing. When we both arrive at Korolya, I will return the favor.”
…
Just one day after Galaraldo’s departure, the Star Realm Army Dragonhawk Command issued an order: the Rage Bear Legion and Dragonhawk Third Legion were to cooperate and quell the Ironmen rebellion on Rage Owl Star within two weeks. After two weeks, no matter the situation on Rage Owl Star, the Rage Bear Legion must at least withdraw half its forces to Korolya III to address the growing chaos of the rebellion there.
In the past, Rage Owl Star had never had any interaction with the Imperial Star Realm Army, but starting today, the situation was utterly different. The Rage Bear Legion was now a part of the Star Realm Army. Although it was an independent legion, it had to follow the directives of the local command—namely, the Star Domain headquarters.
These directives wouldn’t involve specifics of combat, but they would pertain to troop deployments and mission assignments.
Galaraldo indeed wasn’t the type to push people to their deaths.
This campaign to support Korolya III didn’t require the entire Rage Bear Legion; it didn’t demand the presence of Gu Hang, the legion commander; it thoughtfully considered the ongoing rebellion on Rage Owl Star and didn’t demand immediate action, granting a two-week grace period.
But no matter how you look at it, this was undoubtedly a vexing decision.
Within the Tianma Star Sector, there was only one force from the Star Realm Army before this: Dragonhawk Third Legion. They were mainly stationed on three planets in the Fatches Star System, with a scale of twenty million.
To deal with the issue on Korolya III, what use would the fifteen thousand men from the Rage Bear Legion be? If anything, it should be the bona fide Dragonhawk Legion that was called.
Most of the Dragonhawk Legion was still lying down in the Fatches Star Sector; a smaller part had gone to Korolya III, and an even smaller segment was about to arrive at Rage Owl Star.
To not even deploy the forces headed for Rage Owl Star and instead have them quell the Iron Men rebellion, while sending troops from Rage Owl Star to Korolya III, wasn’t that like dropping your pants just to fart?
It was clearly targeting Gu Hang.
When Gu Hang synchronized this matter with Yan Fangxu, Major General Yan—still primarily recognized by his Rage Owl Star military rank internally—was utterly baffled.
In two weeks, his Rage Bear Legion would be halved in size?
“Mr. Governor, this will put a lot of pressure on our attack, and we’ll face a shortage of troops,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” Gu Hang maintained a confident façade in front of his subordinates, “Tadeusz will be commissioned to start the construction of 9 new division and brigade level units, totaling over 130,000 people.”
Yan Fangxu did the calculations. Following Gu Hang’s plan, they would extract seven divisions to complete the deployment commanded by Dragonhawk Command, and now they would be reinforced with nine new divisions. Overall, it seemed the alliance’s troop count would definitely be on the rise.
However, this meant that the manpower pool released under the second-level mobilization order had begun to be utilized.
This certainly was not a good signal as it meant the overall production capacity of the alliance was going to be impacted due to the workforce joining the military.
Although under the second-level mobilization order, this impact was still relatively mild, Gu Hang did not want the situation to worsen further.
In his exchange with Yan Fangxu, he was open about this issue: “This is the largest force the alliance can commit without affecting production. In the short term, this is also the last additional force. You must use our military carefully and coordinate well with the Dragonhawk Legion that will follow,” he said.
Yan Fangxu was somewhat somber.
He understood what this meant.
The forces at his disposal had reached their limit; there would be no more numbers allocated for his use. Even future unit casualties might impact the replenishment of troops.
But he knew that this certainly wasn’t Mr. Gu’s fault.
He sighed, “Let’s hope that Star Realm Army is dependable enough.”
…
The Dragonhawk Third Legion arrived on time.
Three days after the departure of the Tax Fleet, they reached Rage Owl Star.
They were brought here by the transport ships of the Gu Family and armed merchant ships.
Of course, it wasn’t a free service exploiting the family fleet. Transporting the Star Realm Army was a transportation order from the Empire Commerce Guild to the Gu Commercial Firm, which was paid for—though the profit margin was very low.
But as long as there was pay, it wasn’t freeloading.
The contingent brought on this fleet amounted to three hundred thousand people.
The arrival of these troops allowed Gu Hang and Yan Fangxu to breathe a sigh of relief.
According to the latest news, a second batch of troops had already departed from the Fatches Star System, with seven hundred thousand men.
One million troops in total from the Dragonhawk Third Legion allocated for dispatch!
With this, there was no longer any worry for local combat on Rage Owl Star.
————
4k words, making up for yesterday.
There is one more chapter today, but likely late at night…