But the situation that followed began to descend into chaos.
The next day, Pei Desi ended his life with dignity, and the various investigation teams hastily departed Korolya III with Akuna and Pei Desi’s corpse in tow. What followed was an all-out war between two factions within the star sector.
One side was the opportunistic Fatches, who began to vie for the positions of Korolya III Governor and Tianma Star Region’s Head.
Unlike other places, Fatches had the capital of three civilized planets on one hand and significant influence over the Star Realm Armed Forces’ Dragonhawk Third Legion on the other. If they took over Korolya, they really had the capacity to stabilize the situation here.
Currently, the Star Realm Army struggling here numbered seven million, but they were fully capable of doubling that figure within a year; if that wasn’t enough, the planetary defense forces from the three planets could transfer tens of millions more.
This was a tremendous advantage in terms of volume.
Once they gained control over Korolya, combined with the original Fatches I/II/III planets, the population they would control would exceed fifty billion, nearly eighty percent of the entire star sector’s population.
With this might, taking on the position of Tianma Star Region’s Head would make them the undisputed rulers of the entire star sector, returning the family to its former glory.
This so-called family glory referred to the history of the Fatches Family.
Before the Tianma Star Sector was reclaimed by the empire, it was the Fatches Family in charge here. After the Golden Age of humanity, when major worlds fell into disarray and ruled themselves, the Fatches Family rapidly grew in this dark era. They controlled three planets within their star system, formed a tri-star political alliance, and became the rulers of it.
After the dark age ended and the Imperial Navy arrived at the Fatches Star System, they offered up the three planets, submitted to the empire, and actively participated in the empire’s expeditions; this allowed them to retain the governorships of the three planets, permanently keeping them within their family. They even held control over the entire Tianma Star Sector at one point. Many of the past heads of the star sector were under the control of the Fatches Family.
Until the arrival of Pei Desi, this high-ranking official from the Star Domain Government, who, during his decades as Tianma Star Region’s Head, aggressively diminished the Fatches Family’s control over the entire star sector, almost pushing their influence back within their own star system.
Now was their chance to reclaim their family’s glory and become Tianma’s ‘shepherds’ once again.
But similarly, the other faction wouldn’t sit back and give up so easily.
Pei Desi was dead, but only he was dead. The political legacy he left behind was far from extinct, and even his brother remained the Flying Wing Star Governor—this also showed how rough the empire’s handling of Tianma Star Sector’s issues were. Experience more tales on My Virtual Library Empire
But this was also very much the empire’s style.
Before his death, Pei Desi managed to secure enough for himself. He already had extensive connections within the Star Domain Government, and quite a number of people sympathized with his death, feeling that the Sun Lord was acting recklessly—they all knew he was being scapegoated.
He made good use of this to secure his brother’s position, ensuring that Pei Desi wasn’t implicated, and even attempted to continue tying the Gu Clan and Fufana together.
If all of Pei Desi’s previous requests had been fulfilled, it would’ve indeed been quite stable.
Fufana as the head, accompanied by the Imperial Navy, was still from his own faction; the Gu Clan would pick someone to be the Korolya Governor, also from his faction; and Pei Desi remained the Flying Wing Star Governor.
In this way, the political entity that had been comprehensively suppressing the Fatches Family initially could still largely be preserved.
Originally, Pei Desi might have had many ways to ensure that the Gu Clan and Fufana obediently followed his plans. But no matter how many methods he had, they were useless now. He was out of time. After the Gu Clan and Fufana rejected his plans, he couldn’t even manage a second round of persuasion and lobbying before he was killed.
And Pei Desi… in Gu Hang’s view, was completely lacking his brother’s abilities.
After his brother’s death, he openly turned hostile, cursing the Gu Clan and Fufana as ‘traitors’ at multiple meetings and banquets, while also fully mobilizing the political legacy his brother left, starting a comprehensive political war against Fatches.
This war mainly took place on two battlegrounds: one within Korolya III internally, the other being the Star Domain Government.
A new governor could be appointed by the empire from above, but the Central Empire couldn’t manage everything. After all, it boiled down to reports from each level of government and, generally speaking, if there were no major issues, the Central Empire would approve them. Here, the voice of the star domain level government was very significant.
But equally, being a governor meant that one must have sufficient control over the entire planet. He was the top military and political leader, burdened with the heavy responsibility of collecting imperial tax, and he must be able to quell the planet’s troubles to ensure the tax was properly collected.
No matter what the methods employed were.
Were there instances of governors being parachuted in? Of course. But unless it was a foolhardy death sentence, any parachuted governor had to be a ‘strong dragon’ arriving with powerful resources to suppress the local ‘snakes.’
Would the Star Domain Government want to send such a strong dragon?
Probably not.
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Although the Star Domain Government is large and powerful, its resources are still limited.
The other approach is to choose someone from among the local powers, which eliminates this problem.
If this model is used, the Star Domain Government will fully consider the situation within the star sector and planets to find a person they believe can stabilize the situation.
This is exactly the point that Fatches and Pei Desi are competing over.
On Yunluo Star, officials at all levels of the Star Domain Government who have a say will probably keep welcoming lobbyists in the following period.
The other battlefield is within the planet itself, which involves selecting this “local power.”
To put it plainly, both families are looking for a spokesperson. This spokesperson needs to be strong enough to unite other local forces and also needs to stand on their side.
In this, there will undoubtedly be all kinds of alliances and interest trades.
And that’s just what’s on the surface.
In the dark, assassination, lies, conspiracies, framing, and slander… none can be spared.
The Gu Clan and Fufana huddled together, somewhat revealing a hint of neutrality, but who can truly be neutral?
The Gu Clan is still alright; at least not long ago, they had a history of trying to mend relations with Fatches; when Gu Hang cleaned out Blackbird Heavy Industries on Rage Owl Star, although he slightly coerced Fatches and made them bleed a little, in essence, he was cleaning up after them. The evidence of the Ironmen rebellion he obtained from Blackbird was also hidden and not handed over to Pei Desi.
But it’s different for Fufana; they had not refrained from taking part in suppressing Fatches in the past.
They had a grudge.
Over the years, the intertwining close relations between the Gu Clan and Fufana and their alliance with Pei Desi have become complex and difficult to cut off at once.
Simply put, the Tianma Fleet is present in the star sector; Gu Commercial Firm primarily operates within the star sector, and Rage Owl Star is also within it. You simply cannot avoid being involved in this whirlpool that is gradually affecting the entire star sector.
Wang Qi had become visibly busy and had repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with her son’s carefree attitude, which was equivalent to a hands-off shopkeeper.
But each time, Gu Hang just smiled and perfunctorily brushed off a few sentences without truly getting involved.
It wasn’t that he didn’t take it seriously, but rather, he had other matters to attend to.
What does your squabbling have to do with me?
Taking advantage of this opportunity to gain some real benefits is what truly matters.
He had set his sights on two things.
First, of course, was the population.
On Korolya III, the least valuable thing, yet the most precious in Gu Hang’s eyes, was its population.
Apart from the population, this world was worthless in his eyes.
Previously, there was still Governor Akuna with Pei Desi backing him. Now, all that is gone, and for Gu Hang to harvest the population, it has become much easier and more convenient.
As for the second thing he was eyeing, it was the position of Governor of Heijian Star.
He had no interest in being the Governor of Korolya, at least not for now; he was neither a local power nor strong enough to dominate in such a vast place as Korolya.
But his interest in becoming the Governor of Heijian Star was not only existent but also significant.
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