Start with Planetary Governor

Chapter 484, Silver Tribunal
Lois's choice was a real surprise to Gu Hang.

Isn’t it the legality that worries you?

If Royce can come, he can help a lot.

She is the Chief of the Government Affairs Department of the Dragon Eagle Star Territory, and can be regarded as the number two figure in the entire Star Territory government.

After she comes, Gu Hang will be able to establish a small star government within the area under his actual control.

The name is clear: the Chief of Administrative Affairs carries out the work of the Star Territory Administrative Affairs Department here, which is very reasonable.

After that, whatever Gu Hang does, he can do it in the name of the Star Territory Government.

He could even go so far as to cause some trouble for the Raging Flames.

This is the battle between 'name' and 'reality'.

In fact, Gu Hang has suffered a lot in the name of the Star Territory Government, but he has also made some efforts in this regard.

They cannot directly resist the Raging Flames, but they can inform the Alliance; they dare not blatantly help the Alliance, but they can resist, delay, and increase anger on certain things that the Raging Flames require their cooperation. The cost of operating the Pyro Legion.

To be honest, this is very unstable and completely different from Erso's original vision.

Through the information obtained that was not even classified, Gu Hang was able to see that the Star Territory Government was not so willing to act as a dog to the Raging Flames Chapter.

But this will significantly consume the prestige they have finally built through the Iron Teeth War and have been greatly reduced by the existence of the alliance.

It is unrealistic for these agents to seek subversion, as the alliance's influence and instigation capabilities are insufficient; however, it is possible to spy on some intelligence and conduct some secret contacts with certain key figures.

Gu Hang, on the other hand, is much more patient in this regard.

They have already tried this method in many star fields. Although it takes a long time, it is successful.

If this continues, the eastern part of the Dragon Eagle Star Territory will only develop better and better under his control, and society will become more stable. He will be able to turn the two hundred worlds in the east into his own base.

What Gu Hangyuan could see in the east of the star field, Erso's experience was certainly more personal when he was in it.

However, it was obvious that Erso did not want to spend any more time with Gu Hang.

Originally, Erso's idea was that the Raging Flames would become the heroes of the Dragon Eagle Star Territory, and then everything would become very easy to handle. They will return power to local forces and form strong alliances with them through influence and security. Then, the power of the Menghe Star Region and the Princess Star Region will be introduced, and they will continue to penetrate through business and political cooperation. In a few years, the Dragon Eagle Star Region will become the de facto ally of the 'Iron Fury Stone'; in a few years, they will have to rely heavily on the 'Iron Fury Stone'.

While the former is constantly being consumed, no matter how strong they are, after the local forces truly start to turn away from Germany, it will be impossible for them to continue to control half of the star field.

After all, the Wrathful Flames Chapter is a guest army. It is impossible to solve the affairs of half a star field, hundreds of billions of people, and one or two hundred worlds with less than a thousand space warriors. Although they also brought a large number of auxiliary troops, they still needed to rely on a large number of local forces to maintain their rule.

On the contrary, as long as Gu Hang still maintains the cold war situation with the Raging Flames Chapter, the inherent conflicts in the western part of the Star Territory will become increasingly unable to be suppressed, and the entire society will become more and more boiling. The one after another rebellion may not be easy to see, but the cost of rule of the Raging Flames Chapter will undoubtedly continue to rise, so that not only can they not be able to produce blood for them, but they will need constant blood transfusions to maintain it.

Be patient, don't be anxious, don't make mistakes, digest the results, and save your family fortune.

This is the overall thinking of Gu Hang's leadership of the alliance when fighting against the angry flames.

However, in the Dragon Eagle Star Territory, everything is different. This step of becoming a hero and savior is greatly compromised. Now, half of the star field regards them as enemies, so how can they be considered heroes? Moreover, it is precisely because of the hostile relationship with the alliance that they cannot go all out to build their own "glorious image" and have to squeeze the power of half of the star field they control to maintain this cold war.

Only two years had passed, and a Lois defected;
What about two more years? What about four years?
If you have the ability, just spend six or eight years with me. By then, the alliance's naval formations will not know how big they will grow!
……

It must be emphasized again that they are guest troops, they are not the local masters of the Dragon Eagle Star Territory. Their ability to control half of the star field relies on the prestige brought by winning the war, saving the world, and their powerful strength. Both of these are indispensable.

Some senior officials of the star region government have reached a certain tacit understanding with the alliance in this way.

Although there were many difficulties, the intelligence departments of the alliance all showed their talents and thought of some methods to place some agents in various worlds in the western part of the Dragon Eagle Star Region, including Yunluo Star.

He was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

By now, he must admit that the alliance standing opposite him is a very powerful enemy. He is actually not very good at spying on intelligence within the alliance, but the few words he reveals can still let him know that this enemy will only become stronger and stronger.

But we cannot take advantage of this moment to directly use force, and we have to hold back here to engage in a cold war.

This was very frustrating, but what was even more frustrating was that he felt that the local forces in the western part of the Dragon Eagle Star Territory were rebounding due to the resources extracted from the Cold War and the high-pressure and strong rule that the Raging Flame Chapter had to adopt.

The allocation of materials and the replenishment of personnel have become increasingly unsmooth, and the transmission and execution of orders have become increasingly obscure.

He had the feeling of being stuck in a quagmire. He could clearly feel that if this continued, he and his battle group would be drowned in the Dragon Eagle Star Territory.

The situation must be broken.

But the way to break the situation cannot be war, at least it cannot be an unknown war. It's not enough to say that the Alliance is treasonous, and the words are harsh, but in fact, Erso understands better than anyone else what image the 'Iron Fury Stone' has in the imperial political arena. I can't clean myself from the yellow mud, but I still point at others and call them traitors, but no one believes me.

Once he takes the initiative to start a war, if his "declaration" is not enough, it may cause a very big reaction. The worst case scenario could even lead to the Empire declaring the Wrathful Flames to be traitors and mobilizing forces to suppress him.

At that point, it will be another 'Redbud Rebellion'. That is the most important opportunity for the development and growth of Iron Fury Stone, but it is also their biggest crisis. At that time, if they had not won, the fate of the three battle groups, Redbud Flower, Broken Star Blade, and Phoenix, would have been the fate of their Iron Armor, Raging Flame, and Rock Shield.

But on the other hand, what if claiming is enough?
In the past two years, Erso has been causing all kinds of trouble for the alliance because he has been accumulating 'claims'.

Officials who do not obey orders, do not listen to dispatches, and do not accept the star government... And this time, the issue of imperial tax is a decisive blow.

Erso had already thought that it was impossible for Gu Hang to pay taxes for him. Otherwise, if more than 70 billion falls into his hands, many things can be settled, and there is no need to exploit the local area so much, and he can even share the benefits...

But it didn't matter if he didn't pay taxes. Even if Gu Hang went to the upper-level government to pay taxes, it was just like the previous incident of reporting merit, which was also within his expectation.

He even thought about whether to rob the transport fleet sent by Gu Hang. Anyway, it was not a serious imperial tax fleet, and it was not the same nature as robbing the imperial tax fleet.

But after thinking about it, the risk is still too high, and that would offend the Zhouyu government too much. After all, the money was shipped to the Zhouyu government. If the Zhouyu government jumped out and said that this was the official tax fleet they recognized, there would be big trouble.

The current situation is enough.

Skip the star domain government and pay taxes directly to the higher-level government?
Even if it is recognized by the higher-level government, there are still too many things to make a fuss about.

In this universe, there are only a few things that are truly black and white. Most things are in gray, with varying degrees of gray. The same thing has completely different properties under different judgment standards or even different positions.

The materials accumulated in the past, plus the issue of imperial tax this time, all accumulated, are the cannonballs Erso will use next.

But this cannonball cannot be fired by the Raging Flame Chapter for the same reason that he cannot start a war without authorization.

However, there is a reason why 'Iron Fury Stone' has been in the imperial political arena for so many years and has done many unruly and illegal things. He is still so arrogant now. In addition to their own strong hard power, they have also developed some partners and communities of interests, which have formed a "protective umbrella" to a certain extent.

It doesn't matter, the boat has capsized long ago!
And now, it's time to use these 'relationships'.

Inquisition.

'Iron Fury Stone' has maintained quite good relationships with many Imperial Tribunal organizations and religious orders over the years.

Speaking of the Tribunal, this is a rather special organization within the empire.

They are a super spy organization that combines multiple functions such as secret police, spies, intelligence, internal surveillance, dealing with heretics, and external elimination of demons and aliens.

Their power is so great that it surpasses any other political entity in the empire, and they monitor all living beings in the empire at all times.

Inquisitors theoretically have nearly unlimited power, and they can do almost anything they want for the right reasons. Sign an extermination order to kill billions or even tens of billions of people on a planet; execute an Imperial Marshal; monitor the Lords of the High Council; declare a Space Marine Chapter to be treason...

At the same time, the Tribunal is a large, loose, and complex organization. Each Inquisitor has his or her own ideas on how to more effectively defend the Imperium. There are actually numerous factions within the Inquisition based on different philosophies and methods of doing things.

There is the Demon Tribunal, which specializes in dealing with the problem of demons in the abyss, the Foreign Tribunal, which is dedicated to fighting all kinds of aliens, and the Heretic Tribunal, which specializes in uncovering traitors to the empire... These three are considered the largest, but there are many smaller ones. , other factions with completely different ideas.

The Inquisition has no formal structural framework, and some Inquisitors form cooperative groups when they encounter major problems that cannot be solved alone. Often such cooperative groups are the precursor and prototype of an Inquisition faction.

It may be said that the powers of the judges are boundless, but in actual matters, the situation is much more complicated. The nominally excessive power of the Inquisition often turns into having no power at all. In other words, what a certain judge wants to do depends on his 'strength'.

This strength, on the one hand, depends on how much power the judge can mobilize within the Tribunal itself. How willing is the support of one's own faction, how much power of other factions can be mobilized, how much support can be obtained from organizations outside the Inquisition, and whether it can mobilize the help of the Ecclesiarchy, the Mechanicus, and even the Astra Militarum or the Imperial Navy. These are all components of a judge's strength.

On the other hand, it is the degree to which the words and judgments made by the judge can be recognized within the empire.

Therefore, although the Inquisitors have almost unlimited secular power in legal terms, if they abuse their power in reality, they will soon face various worldly consequences - even the Inquisition itself has a specialized agency Inquisitors responsible for policing abuses of power. Therefore, although it is theoretically possible, in fact the judges cannot really do whatever they want.

As for the relationship between 'Iron Fury Stone' in the Tribunal, surprisingly, it's not bad.

Especially the Silver Tribunal, a large faction that often operates in the east of the empire.

This tribunal once had a glorious history, with tens of thousands of formal inquisitors under its command, and maintained good cooperation with many powerful Astra Militarum legions and naval marshals. There are two biggest tricks. One is that they successfully set off a trial against the chairman of the 'McCree Universe'. This man, who could definitely be regarded as the top official of the empire and a frontier official, was sentenced by the Silver Tribunal.

No matter whether it was 'treason', 'incompetent corruption' or 'causing huge losses to the empire' as the Silver Tribunal said, anyway, the final result was that the chairman of the universe wanted to start a rebellion to protect himself, but Still, he was dismantled and executed by the Silver Tribunal.

The second greatest act was during the Great Redbud Rebellion more than a hundred years ago, which proved the loyalty of the Iron Armor Chapter, sentenced the Redbud Chapter to extinction, and sentenced the Star-Breaking Blade and the Phoenix to carry out the atonement expedition. .

After these two major events happened one after another, the Silver Tribunal became famous in many cosmic regions in the eastern part of the empire. 'Iron Fury Stone' often cooperated with some of their actions and caused many things.

And the judgments made by the Silver Tribunal can always become a reality with their original strong strength and the support of the 'Iron Fury Stone'. At the same time, they can also get the Imperial Tribunal Headquarters to sign their verdict.

(End of this chapter)