Chapter 729: Chapter 409, Atonement Expedition, Independent Kingdom_2
It was a highly classified piece of information, and initially Gu Hang could only garner a few bits and pieces, as well as some assertions regarding the Phoenix from Matins and Priest Rizzo.
But these were rather one-sided and scanty.
Later on, when Gu Hang’s ‘good brother’, Bochoya Galaraldo, made it big, it became much easier for Gu Hang to investigate these messages.
Galaraldo gave him an internal secret report.
The Bauhinia Uprising occurred within a star sector named ‘Cercis Flower’, which is located in the Spiderweb Domain, inside the Princess Star Domain.
The Spiderweb Domain is next to the Eastern Cosmos Domain, situated to the north on the star map.
Within the Cercis Flower Star Sector, there is a battle group named after the star sector, called the Bauhinia Battle Group. It’s a sub-group of the Phoenix Legion, sharing the same lineage as the Phoenix.
In the Spiderweb Domain, there’s also a battle group called ‘Iron Armor.’ Compared to Cercis Flower and Phoenix, the Iron Armor Battle Group had much more renown; they were directly in charge of the Princess Star Domain, along with several other star sectors, forming a defense network. Their primary adversaries were the Void Insect Species.
The Void Insect Species are terrifying alien creatures whose individuals lack self-will and are entirely commanded by higher-level node creatures.
Their bio-fleets roamed the Star Sea, with each vessel serving as a giant space organism. They were true destroyers; upon visiting a planet, they would swiftly devour all life on it, destroying the local ecosystem and laying down large swathes of ‘flesh blankets.’ These flesh blankets would drain the nutrients from the entire planet and efficiently absorb stellar energy while hatching more of the Void Insect beasts, even producing many parts and sending them into space to form new bio-starships.
A Hive Fleet traveled via conventional means to the Princess Star Domain, causing massive destruction. It wasn’t until Iron Armor, along with several allied battle groups, arrived that the situation in the Princess Star Domain was controlled and the influence of the Void Insect Species was suppressed within a few star sectors.
Though the disaster was contained, the characteristics of the Void Insect Species meant endless vast numbers and an extremely rapid replenishment of forces. Moreover, the planets devoured by the Void Insect Species became their flesh blankets, and even if humans reclaimed them, they could hardly make further use of them.
Given this, considering the exorbitant cost necessary to reclaim these planets, the Human Empire commanded Iron Armor and several other battle groups to establish a defense belt around the multiple star sectors infested by the bug race. The goal of the Human Empire was to control the situation in that area and prevent the empire from investing more resources, as at that time, the Solar Expedition was in full swing, with a significant concentration of manpower and material resources in the southern parts of the empire; there simply weren’t enough resources to address this significant disaster.
For this, the empire granted Iron Armor Battle Group a substantial degree of autonomy. They were able to collect taxes themselves and manage all the empire’s forces within the Princess Star Domain, as long as they paid the Imperial Tax—everything else was up to Iron Armor to manage.
Even the various battle groups active within the Princess Star Domain let Iron Armor take the lead, facilitating unified and coordinated actions.
And so, the Iron Armor Battle Group became the de facto ruler of the Princess Star Domain.
Iron Armor Battle Group did indeed do a commendable job; they halted the Void Insect Species’ continuous expansion and fully paid the Imperial Tax.
If matters only went this far, then without a doubt, the Iron Armor Battle Group would be a great loyal and meritorious vassal of the empire.
However, it didn’t take long for some scandals to emerge.
The Iron Armor Battle Group had not paid nearly as much in taxes as it claimed, and the ‘full’ tax payment of the Princess Star Domain was in fact a doctored account. They exaggerated the losses brought by the Void Insect Species by more than tenfold and retained 80% of the taxes that should have been paid in the star domain by lowering the development index and hiding population checks, among other methods.
On top of that, they inflated the scale of battles with the bug race, continuously demanding money, personnel, and supplies from the empire, threatening that they couldn’t hold back the insects otherwise. Then they would actually withdraw from part of their defensive lines, allowing the Void Insect Species to break out and wreak havoc in external star sectors, forcing the empire to really provide funds.
There were also problems with the tax they paid on Gene Seeds; they submitted a number appropriate for a battle group with about eight hundred or nine hundred warriors, but in reality, they ‘overproduced’ many. According to the report, on the eve of the Bauhinia Uprising, the Iron Armor Battle Group had at least the scale of six thousand Interstellar Warriors.
The empire had restrictions on the size of battle groups; they were not to exceed one thousand warriors. Six thousand Interstellar Warriors meant the scale of six battle groups.
What’s more, they trained a large number of Mortal Auxiliary Armies loyal only to themselves.
This was classic behavior of nurturing one’s own power to threaten authority.
And the one who revealed all this was the Bauhinia Battle Group.
The Bauhinia Battle Group was also within the Princess Star Domain, but they already had some longstanding grievances with the Iron Armor Battle Group, and now they were expected to follow Iron Armor’s command, which was somewhat unacceptable.
If it were just this, for the greater good and for the empire’s command, they might have reluctantly acquiesced. The problem was that Iron Armor Battle Group was not generous; they often withheld resources from Bauhinia and constantly sent them to fight the tough battles.