But even at this stage, it was only a matter of repelling one attack from the enemy, far from enough to make those kings submit.
They didn’t have the guts to reassemble their troops and launch another large-scale attack on the Luman Kingdom, so they could only opt for an economic blockade and minor border harassments to continue their hostilities.
Of course, they certainly wouldn’t be paying any Imperial Taxes to the Luman Kingdom now.
This was somewhat tricky for Gu Hang, but it was also within his expectations. With Nes Luman insisting on not giving up the governorship of Heijian Star, the reactions of the other nations there were predictable.
This matter was bound to end in war.
Gu Hang harbored aspirations to annex the entire Heijian Star, and the other kingdoms, not made of mud, would naturally resist.
This situation was less an accident than a result fostered by Gu Hang himself.
He had long been prepared for a war.
Especially now that the conflict within Rage Owl Star had almost completely subsided, the Alliance had sufficient strength to cope with this war.
And Gu Hang was confident enough to win it.
Heijian Star had a population of four hundred million, and counting the new immigrants, Rage Owl Star had just fifty-five million—a seemingly huge disparity in scale, but in reality, not so much.
The gap in industrial capacity and mobilization ability between the two was too large.
The main military forces of the kingdoms on Heijian Star, namely the kingdom armies, were at best militiamen in terms of quality, and differed greatly from the Alliance’s regular forces in all aspects. Not to mention organization, discipline, and tactics, just their hardware equipment alone was lacking, with many not even equipped with the G-series rifles; much of their armament was self-produced ‘crude guns and cannons’ with range, power, and accuracy all being serious concerns.
The only equipment that could be considered cutting-edge and deserving of the Alliance’s military’s respect were the Sentry Mechas and Knight Titans. However, the former performed only average in head-to-head battles, while the latter were too few in number.
What made things even worse was that the high-tech equipment of those kingdom armies relied entirely on foreign trade, and this trade was facilitated by the Gu Commercial Firm. This made their sustained warfighting capability very weak; once a war broke out and the Gu Commercial Firm blocked trade routes, their military would soon crumble over time. Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire
However, despite Gu Hang feeling very confident in winning the war, and possibly even sustaining minimal losses, he also faced his own dilemma:
The pretext for war.
Certainly, he could use Luman’s name to declare all the other kingdoms on Heijian Star as rebels for not paying the Imperial Tax, and then appeal to the Rage Bear Legion—a Star Realm Army unit—for assistance in quelling the rebellion. The Alliance Army, under the guise of responding to the Star Realm Army’s call, could then head to Heijian Star in large numbers to carry out the ‘suppression’ mission.
This whole rationale was smooth and by-the-book.
But it was a bit too shameless and forced.
After all, a governor’s ruling right was guaranteed by the Empire, but beneath that were local bureaucratic squabbles. Forms like the King’s Council, which nominated the governors, received Empire’s support depending on the political climate of each planet. The King’s Council of Heijian Star was also registered and recognized by the Empire Government.
Moreover, for thousands of years, Heijian Star had operated under such a political system. No matter under what pretense Gu Hang acted, others were not blind or foolish; how could they not see that he was engaging in annexation?
If it were the past, Gu Hang would not have dared to do this.
While the Star Sea was a world where the strong prey upon the weak, under the human race, under the unified government of the Empire, such actions would draw too much criticism, and it would be exceedingly easy for him to be interfered with by other political forces at some step along the way and fail under external meddling.
Moreover, even if successful, there would be a lot of difficult post-war work to do, and a bad job could mean throwing up as much as had been swallowed.
After all, Gu Hang still needed to operate within the system of the Empire.
The main reason he could act now was that the political landscape of the entire Tianma Star Sector had become thoroughly chaotic, which allowed Gu Hang to seize the opportunity.
Furthermore, due to the political turmoil, things that previously required a lot of interest trading and political compromise to accomplish had now become relatively easy to obtain.
Gu Hang, in the name of the Gu Family, issued a notice to the two major powers within the Star Sector, stating his intention to quell the rebellion on Heijian Star.
This was almost a clear declaration that Gu Hang intended to annex Heijian Star.
And for these two major forces, there was one central issue revolving around Gu Hang that they had been vying for beforehand.
That pertained to the issue of the Ironman rebellion on Rage Owl Star, involving assets controlled by the Fatches Family at Blackbird Heavy Industries.
When the Fatches Family initially sent the Star Realm Army to quell the Ironman rebellion on Rage Owl Star, General Cai Minjin received the mission to storm Blackbird City first, gather related clues, and then destroy them.
For them, it was a given.
Indeed, the people of our Fatches Family have caused you trouble, so now I have dispatched a million Star Realm troops to solve this problem for you, we should then be even.
But obviously, what really matters is the specific method used. Cai Minjin couldn’t make it into Blackbird City first, and in the end, it was looted by the Alliance Army.
Fatches felt guilty, they didn’t know what was there, Gu Hang hadn’t said, but… isn’t that fear?
At this critical juncture, they certainly didn’t want this thunder to explode.
On the contrary, Pei Desi wanted Gu Hang to hand over this thunder to them, which would give them a weapon to attack the Fatches Family.
Not to say how lethal, but associating the Ironman rebellion, originally deemed an individual act, with the entire Fatches Family would evidently cause them a great deal of trouble.
And here, Gu Hang thus had the capital to exchange with both parties.
Heijian Star was originally just a marginal small place, with a population of four hundred million, not even half as many as Korolya’s Nest Capital; it had no rich special products, just an agricultural planet under feudalism, it really wasn’t critical.
Moreover, Gu Hang wanted it for himself, he was to take it himself, without any special help from others, he just needed their nod of approval.
So, after some exchanges, Fatches eventually agreed not to trouble Gu Hang over this matter. As long as he could stabilize the situation on Heijian Star before the next Imperial Tax payment, they would consider the matter settled.
After receiving a satisfactory response, Gu Hang quickly reassured them:
“I definitely won’t give Blackbird Heavy Industries’ information to Pei Desi as a weapon to attack Fatches.”
…
“I definitely won’t hand over Blackbird Heavy Industries’ information to Fatches, to let them be completely without worries.”
Then Gu Hang also gave Pei Desi a reassurance on his side.
Gu Hang heard that Pei Desi was furious about this. He had already been angry about the ‘betrayal’ of the Gu Family and Fufana, and now, Gu Hang hadn’t fully met his demands, hadn’t handed over the goods to him, and was certainly not going to come forward to identify the Fatches Family.
But after all, Gu Hang hadn’t completely flipped to the other side.
After repeated persuasion by staff and other cooperative forces, based on the principle that even if the support of the Gu Family couldn’t be garnered, at least relations shouldn’t become hostile, they finally nodded in agreement, their attitude roughly the same as Fatches.
They wouldn’t help, but they wouldn’t cause trouble either.
That was enough.
Having resolved the political issues, Gu Hang could finally get down to business.
The Central Group Army, half of the Rage Bear Legion on Rage Owl Star, the Phoenix Battle Group… The combat forces that Gu Hang confirmed began to get ready to set out.
They were to board the transport ships summoned by the Gu Commercial Firm, embarking from the Rage Owl Star Port, which had already expanded many times over, and head to Heijian Star, taking the first step in the Alliance’s conquest of the Star Sea.
In this war, Gu Hang would participate personally.
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There’s one more chapter, but it will be very late, probably around four o’clock.