Chapter 410, Atonement Expedition, Independent Kingdom
When Martins was escorting Blevins and the other eight people on their way to the Raging Owl, Gu Hang had already received the information from the Phoenix.
In this information, Martins did not hide anything from Gu Hang. The origins of Blevins and his gang, as well as a series of information about the 'Ashes of the Dead' war gang, are all attached to the report in detail.
After reading this, Gu Hang actually had a clear understanding of how Blevins and the other eight people would be handled.
There is no doubt that Martins hopes to save the lives of these people.
Don't look at the intelligence sent back from the front line, which recorded every conversation between Martins and Blevins. Words like 'traitor to the empire', 'disgrace to the Chapter', 'cowards' and the like were all thrown at the heads of Blevins' gang. Moreover, in Martins' own report, he clearly stated the crimes of these people and claimed that all the power of trial lies in the hands of the supporter, master, and savior of the battle group, that is, Gu Hang.
But if Martins really wanted to wash away his shame and killed these eight traitors on the spot, wouldn't it be the end?
Even if one cares about the so-called correctness of the process, or wants to give them a ceremonial trial, it should not be said that the fate of these people will be judged by Gu Hang.
Report it to the Empire. Whether it is the Imperial Tribunal or the Space Marine Management Agency, they are more suitable judges - of course, that will cause the reputation of the Phoenix to be wiped out, and it may even bring trouble. Censorship is not worth the gain.
But no matter what, what is the relationship between Gu Hang and Phoenix in name? He is nothing more than a sponsor.
It is true that Gu Hang is the de facto controller of the Phoenix Chapter, but when Martins set off, Gu Hang had already made it clear that for those who might be traitors to the Phoenix, all authority would be left to Martins. Tings handles it himself.
But these are relatively one-sided and thin.
Even among the multiple war groups operating in the Queen's Star Territory, Tie Kai serves as the alliance leader and can coordinate all deployment operations.
Their biological fleet spans the planetary sea, and each ship can be regarded as a huge space creature. They are real destroyers. When they visit a planet, they will quickly devour all life on the planet, destroy the local ecosystem, and lay down a large amount of 'meat carpet'. These meat blankets will absorb the nutrients of the entire planet and efficiently absorb star energy. At the same time, they will hatch more void insect beasts, and even hatch many parts and send them into space to form new biological starships.
Picking up eight veterans for nothing and saving tens of thousands of gift points is indeed good; but if Martins insists on destroying this group of people, Gu Hang has no objection.
Just declare to the outside world that they had already killed these 'pirates' when they destroyed Saturn.
The Iron Armor Chapter did a really good job. They blocked the continuous expansion of the Void Zerg and paid the imperial tax in full.
At this point, the Iron Armor Chapter has become the de facto master of the Queen's Star Territory.
He had previously checked the information on the 'Redbud Rebellion' that led to Phoenix being sentenced to the Atonement Crusade.
In the spider web domain, there is another battle group named 'Iron Armor'. Compared to Bauhinia and Phoenix, the Iron Armor Chapter has a much greater reputation. They directly guard the Princess Star Region, and together with multiple star regions, form a defensive network. The main enemy they faced was the Void Zerg.
...
Death penalty can be avoided, but living crime cannot be avoided.
In the Bauhinia Star Sector, there is a battle group with the same name as the Star Sector, called the Bauhinia Battle Group. This is also a sub-group of the Phoenix Legion, with the same bloodline as the Phoenix.
The Alliance will not engage in the Atonement Expedition, with no reinforcements and lack of supplies, and it is obvious that people will die. The treatment is the same as that of a normal Phoenix warrior. They will not be deprived of the equipment and supplies they should have and the support they should provide, nor will they be allowed to carry out any fatal missions.
Although the disaster is under control, the characteristics of the Void Zerg represent endless numbers and the ability to recover troops extremely quickly. In addition, the planets that have been devoured by the Void Zerg are all their meat blankets. Even if humans take them back, they will basically not be able to use them again.
In the end, Martins brought the person back alive.
Just eight Space Marines.
The Spider Web Universe is right next door to the Eastern Universe, located in the north on the star map.
It was a highly confidential information. At first, Gu Hang could only get some fragments of information, as well as some explanations about the Phoenix from the mouths of Martins and Pastor Rizzo.
Later, when Gu Hang's 'good brother', Borgia Gallardo, became rich, it became easier for Gu Hang to explore this information.
As for the risks, he didn't think there were any.
A hive fleet came to the Queen's Star Territory through conventional physical space navigation and caused huge damage. It was not until the arrival of Tie Kai and several battle groups allied with Tie Kai that they took control of the situation in the Queen's Star Region and suppressed the Void Zerg forces within a few star regions.
It was precisely because of this that Gu Hang asked Martins to handle it himself.
That's it for the treatment of Blevins and the other eight people.
According to Blevins' confession, their past actions were very cautious. That is to say, they recently came to the Pegasus sector to seduce Martins, so they repainted the power armor. became red. If they were operating normally before, they wouldn't even wear red paint, but all the other colors, who knows who they are.
To this end, the Empire also granted the Iron Armor Chapter considerable autonomy. They can collect taxes on their own and control the imperial power in the entire Princess Star Territory. As long as the imperial taxes are paid, Tie Kai will take care of the rest.
Compared to the eight of them, Gu Hang was more interested in the Phoenix's past and the information about the 'Ashes of the Dead' that Blevins and the others mentioned.
As for those who really know the truth, there are still a few after all, mainly the elites of the 10th Brigade. The reliability of these people was also quite high, and Gu Hang was not worried that they would leak secrets.
For Gu Hang, space warriors are no longer a scarce commodity.
Don't look at what he says, but mainly look at what he does.
The Great Bauhinia Rebellion took place in a star region called 'Bauhinia', which is located in the Spider Space Region and the Princess Star Region.
However, judging from the current situation, since Martins wanted to let these people live, or at least had a tangled mentality, Gu Hang felt that it might not be a bad idea to accept them.
Even if they are all veterans for hundreds of years and all elites, so what?
But similarly, they must shoulder the arduous task of attacking, cannot shirk it, and must perform well when normal conditions are provided.
Gallardo gave him a confidential internal report.
Gu Hang can now create space warriors in batches. Even the selection of genetic seed leaders only costs about a thousand points of gifts; the alliance can already mass-produce the MK4 stalwart power armor, and even the cost can be controlled below tax coins.
Of course, we can't just let them be so cheap. After all, there is sin in them.
Gu Hang gave Martins a suggestion, or instruction: to set up a new company under the battle group, and call it the 'Atonement Company'. After Blevins and the eight of them re-swore allegiance to the Emperor, their past affairs, including those of the Chapter and the Alliance, will be kept secret. However, the Atonement Company they belong to will participate in the most difficult part of every battle of the Phoenix Chapter in the future.
The Void Zerg is a terrifying alien creature. Individuals among them do not have their own will, but are completely obedient to the command of higher-level node creatures.
Because of this, the empire considered that the price to retake these planets was too high, so it ordered Iron Armor and multiple battle groups to establish a defensive belt around multiple star areas invaded by the Zerg. The goal of the Human Empire is to control the situation in the region and prevent the Empire from investing more power. After all, at that time, preparations for the Solar Expedition were in full swing, and a large amount of manpower and material resources were concentrated in the southern part of the Empire. There were really not enough resources. , let's solve this major disaster again.
Eight hundred-year-old veterans are indeed quite powerful and can be used as the backbone, but after all, the training system in Gu Hang's hands only costs an extra 200 points to train a single Space Marine into a veteran; even Blevins and others have an average per capita of After reaching the level of Master Chief, Gu Hang would only have to spend an additional four hundred points to get a new one.
As for whether these people lived or died, Gu Hang really didn't care.
If things only come to this point, then there is no doubt that the Iron Armor Chapter is a great loyalist and hero of the empire.
However, something soon became apparent.
The Iron Armor Chapter did not pay that much tax at all. The so-called "full" tax payment in the Queen's Star Territory was actually a false accounting. They increased the losses caused by the Void Zerg more than ten times, and by lowering the development level and concealing population verification, they withheld 80% of the taxes that should have been paid in the star field.
On this basis, they also exaggerated the scale of the battle with the Zerg, and constantly asked the empire for money, people, and supplies. If they didn't give it, they would say they couldn't stop it. Then, they will really let go of part of the defense line, let the Void Zerg rush out, go to the outer star field to cause trouble, and force the empire to really give money.
There was also a problem with the gene seed tax they handed over. The number of seeds they were given was consistent with the level of a war group of about 800 or 900 people, but in fact, they had 'superborn' a lot. According to reports, the Iron Armor Chapter had at least 6,000 Space Marines on the eve of the Redbud Rebellion.
The empire has restrictions on the size of the battle group, which cannot exceed one thousand people. Six thousand space warriors, this is the size of six battle groups.
What's more, they also cultivated a large number of mortal auxiliaries who were only loyal to them.
This is the standard self-respecting behavior of raising bandits.
And the one who exposed all this was the Redbud Chapter.
Bauhinia is also within the Queen's Star Territory, but they have some old grudges with the Iron Armor Chapter, and now they are asked to obey the Iron Armor's command, which is a bit difficult to accept.
If only for this, for the sake of the overall situation and the empire's orders, they would hold their noses and endure it. But the key point is that the Iron Armor Chapter is not very kind. They often deprive them of resource supplies and always let them fight difficult battles.
This hatred is getting bigger and bigger.
The Bauhinia Flower is within the Queen's Star Territory. After a long time, they have some evidence of what the Iron Armor Chapter did, and then they directly stabbed Holy Terra and had an armed conflict with the Iron Armor Chapter. .
Bauhinia can't fight against the Iron Armor Chapter, which is much larger than them, let alone three other war groups who also stand with the Iron Armor.
So, they started shaking people. It was also at this stage that Phoenix, who had a good relationship with them, was shaken over to help.
But at this point, the situation is actually not bad. It only remains an armed conflict. It can not be regarded as a civil war by turning a blind eye.
However, Holy Terra's next actions intensified the situation.
Of course, the imperial government is not happy to see the Iron Armor Chapter's behavior.
If you do it a little bit, because you are really responsible for it, then forget it; but if you do it too big, you will have to cut down on 80% of the tax revenue of a sector; if you give birth to people, it will be a waste of time for you. You can tolerate it even during wartime, but with six thousand people reincarnated, plus three war groups standing with you, the total is almost over ten thousand Space Marines. It is really inappropriate to set up an independent kingdom here.
Therefore, the empire determined that the Iron Armor Chapter's behavior was a rebellion, restored the imperial tax within a time limit, and required the Iron Armor Chapter to split into six regiments and accept the empire's dispatch to go elsewhere.
Bauhinia, Phoenix, and another "Star-Breaking Blade" battle group were shaken here to serve as supervisors.
Tie Jiai stopped working, and directly concluded that this matter was targeted and was nonsense, and that the evil spirit was in Terra.
They let go of the defense line and allowed some Void Zerg to rush out. At the same time, they completely blocked the Queen's Star Territory and the surrounding star territories, preventing any imperial ships from passing through the Queen's Star Territory. Moreover, within the star field, the Redbud Flower, Phoenix, and Star-Breaking Blade were completely eliminated.
This is a big deal. Events affecting multiple star regions have greatly affected the empire's taxation, trade, and navigation in this area. The Void Zerg were rampaging, and Iron Armor followed behind. In the name of chasing and fighting the Void Zerg, they took over and even plundered many planets, and even requisitioned many materials for the empire's tax fleet.
But within the Princess Star Territory, Bauhinia, Phoenix, and Star-Breaking Blade can't stand up to the Iron Armor at all. No one has more numbers, but the key family has raised a large and very elite mortal auxiliary army over the years. The three war groups lost the support of the empire and could only deploy some planetary defense forces under their control. The quality was very different and they could not defeat them at all.
When things get to this point, it's almost impossible to end them.
Is it really necessary to start an imperial civil war during the preparations for the Sol Expedition?
It's not that it can't be defeated, it's just that it takes at least ten more loyal battle groups, plus countless Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy fleets, to smooth this matter out. Next, we have to deal with the raging Void Zerg, and then we have to leave enough power to block the void wormholes that keep popping up in the Queen's Star Territory.
After evaluation, this cost is too great.
At this time, a Terran official was ordered to send an envoy to the Iron Armor Chapter. With superb diplomacy, he persuaded the Iron Armor Chapter to stop.
The empire will no longer split them up; the imperial taxes in the Queen's Star Region will rise a bit, but not too much; the places they should defend will be left to them; the empire will still give them reinforcements and supplies; the empire will also need to Withdraw the decision against the Iron Armor Chapter's rebellion...
The Iron Armor Chapter accepted these conditions.
So since Tiejia is not a traitor, who is?
Someone has to be responsible.
At the request of the Iron Armor Chapter, Bauhinia took the blame. This rebellion, which was clearly a rebellion by the Iron Armor Chapter, turned out to be the 'Redbud Rebellion' in official records.
They framed the 'loyal' Iron Armor and launched an attack on their own initiative, which led to the breakdown of the Zerg defense line, causing a conflict that affected several star regions and even put the Spider Web Universe in deep crisis.
Bauhinia was completely wiped out by the Iron Armor Chapter's 'counter-insurgency' battle.
The Phoenix and the Star-Breaking Blade were released and sentenced to the Atonement Crusade. The Star-Breaking Blade was completely destroyed sixty years into the Atonement Crusade; the Phoenix survived the Hundred Years Crusade, but only seven of them were left until they met Gu Hang.
This is the whole process of the 'Redbud Rebellion'.
Nowadays, the Iron Armor Chapter is still a major overlord in the Spider Web Domain. It has strong soldiers and horses, has its own independent small kingdom, and is still a heroic war group against the Void Zerg.
As for the battle groups that opposed them, except for Phoenix, who was in a special situation, the rest were wiped out.
In fact, Gu Hang has always thought about this matter occasionally.
Originally, the alliance and the Iron Armor Chapter had little connection. Although the Eastern Space Territory and the Spider Web Space Territory are adjacent to each other, in terms of star realms, the distance between Dragon Eagle and the Princess is not very close. They have to cross at least three more star realms in between before the two can contact each other.
Unless the alliance expands to a very outrageous extent, it should not be able to touch the Queen's Star Territory in a short time;
But we cannot ignore another problem: if the void Zerg problem breaks out in the Queen's Star Territory, whether the iron armor cannot stop it, or they are going to do something stupid again, and the scale expands to an outrageous situation, then The Dragon Eagle Star Territory may instead be affected.
But that probability shouldn't be high. What happened a hundred years ago was no longer a small matter. It indeed passed through three star regions and was finally wiped out with a lot of effort. However, the direction was not towards the Dragon Eagle Star Region.
However, although this is the normal situation, if the Phoenix revives again, what will the Iron Armor Chapter do?
All Gu Hang's knowledge of this war group came from the report of the Bauhinia Rebellion. Judging from what happened in those years, Gu Hang felt that this war group's methods had no bottom line. Moreover, they are quite vengeful and treat their enemies ruthlessly.
If it were Bauhinia that revived, then Gu Hang had no doubt that the Iron Armor Chapter would find a way to kill Bauhinia even if they were three star regions apart.
Phoenix is slightly better. After all, Phoenix came to help in the battle back then, and the hatred between itself and Tiejai was not that big. But it was just a little better than Bauhinia. Gu Hang was still not sure what Tie Kai would think when he turned around.
This may be a threat that needs to be taken seriously.
The same is true for the Ashes of the Dead warband, even more urgent.
After all, the Iron Armor Chapter is still a member of the empire. No matter how unscrupulous they are, they cannot completely abandon the rules. As for the Ashes of the Dead, this is a renegade warband that has surrendered to Chaos. They have no rules and are full of malice.
According to some information revealed by Blevins when he was later interrogated on the ship, the Ashes Dead had an 'obsessive' attitude towards all past Phoenix bloodlines. After Blevins and the others broke out of Zhong Jihua's siege, they were tracked and intercepted by the Ashes Dead many times in the following years, and they ran away every time.
Zhong Jihua really wants them to 'join' because they have the same blood flowing through them, so it's best if they all become dirty blood. If any of the phoenixes were still loyal or even getting better, Zhong Jihua would be very unhappy.
This was certainly Blevins's guess, and perhaps there was a point in it that he was deliberately exaggerating. However, Gu Hang believes that it is indeed a high probability that the Ashes Dead will turn against the Phoenix and then the Alliance.
The Phoenix's attack on Saturn this time not only solved a small problem of the pirates, nor was it just the problem of the eight Phoenixes, it also put some future worries in front of Gu Hang.
These things must be guarded against.
How to prevent it?
It's nothing more than making yourself stronger.
To fight against Iron Armor, that may still be far away. They are the overlord of a star field, and they were reincarnated into an estimated 6,000 space warriors a hundred years ago. A hundred years have passed, and although they must have suffered some losses in their continuous fight against the constant invasion of the void zerg, they must have suffered some losses. As it gradually develops, I'm afraid it will definitely not be less than it was back then. In fact, the empire now doesn't even know how many people there are in the Iron Armor, and they are very wary of this.
There are not just a few thousand, maybe even tens of thousands of interstellar warriors. The most important thing is that he has unified the power of a star field. The strength level is equivalent to the mortal auxiliary army of the Astra Militarum, which is probably calculated in the billions. ; the size of the naval fleet, calculated based on the Dragon Eagle Star Region, is at least three to four times that of the Pegasus fleet in its heyday.
The current size of the alliance is incomparable.
But at least, that's a goal.
To be honest, Gu Hang still yearns for the Iron Armor Chapter's rule in the Queen's Star Territory. However, Gu Hang would not adopt a plan similar to theirs.
As for the Ashes Dead, this one may be relatively easy to deal with in terms of strength. The size of this war gang may be similar to the current Phoenix, that is, a scale of two to three hundred people. What's more, Phoenix has an alliance behind him.
But the trouble for them is that the whereabouts of the rebel war gang are even more elusive, and they have no base or lair to find. Even though Martins now very much hopes to find the Ashes of the Dead and eliminate the shame of these real phoenixes, but... there is no condition.
To deal with them, we can only defend passively.
Head-on confrontation is not a problem, but the problem is that Gu Hang doesn't know when, where and how their threats will come, so it's not easy to guard against them.
Under this situation, Gu Hang decided to put a little more effort into strengthening the Phoenix Chapter in the next period of time.
The best way to fight against the Chaos Space Marines is, of course, loyal Space Marines.
If someone is not stupid enough to confront the huge size of the alliance, they will probably engage in some over-the-limit operations and special operations methods. The alliance must have the corresponding strength to be able to fight against it.
...
After thinking about the two possible threats in the future for a while, Gu Hang casually dealt with the matter of Jue Saturn.
When Martins took Blevins and others to leave Saturn, the Alliance left about 20,000 Astra Militarum troops of the Raging Bear Legion, controlling the capital of Saturn locally.
But in fact, Gu Hang had no intention of bringing Jue Saturn under the direct rule of the alliance.
The alliance's power is not a big problem in the Pegasus Sector. Gu Hang is now the leader of the Pegasus Sector. But if it were to expand beyond the Tianma star region, it would be a very sensitive political matter and would cause some consequences that Gu Hang didn't want to see.
It's not that he has no plan for this, but if he wants to do it, he may still lack some opportunities.
The key point is that if there is really a huge benefit, Gu Hang will do it even if he takes the risk. But obviously, the condition of Saturn and the benefits it can bring are not commensurate with the risks.
The minerals on that planet have not yet been explored, but I guess there won't be many, or they won't be considered precious, otherwise it wouldn't be what it is now. There are also some necessary conditions for the development of industry. There is neither a place close to the market nor a place close to the market. Places with particularly large populations are not yet rich in resources.
Just relying on nomadism and agriculture to barely support 200 million people, Gu Hang felt that there was really no need to go to war for it.
The conditions for destroying Saturn may not be as good as the original Raging Owl. Although Nuo Xiaoxing had a very small population at the beginning and was still a post-war wasteland, at least there were places like Qinggu area where the natural environment was well maintained during the development of Nuo Xiaoxing, and there were also precious resources such as waste energy storms. .
What's more, when Gu Hang invested resources in building the Raging Star, he had no choice. He started here and had no choice.
Now that he had a choice, Gu Hang didn't think it was a good choice to accept Jue Saturn and then spend a lot of money to develop it.
However, not bringing it under the direct control of the alliance does not mean that there is no other way.
The governor is dead and the crime is ready. Eliminate the traitorous Space Marine, and what is left is enough for Gu Hang to hang him.
Then, he will support a new governor of Saturn, who will not join the alliance, but can sign some cooperation agreements with the planets under the alliance.
The food and biological materials produced by the nomadic groups there are valuable, and the Alliance can also export some cheap industrial products, such as daily necessities, furniture and appliances, which the imperial tax despises, in exchange for these things.
It's just fine as a small grain production base.
Then, some technology can be overflowed and used to better carry out the breeding industry and primary processing industry, which will also stimulate the development of Jue Saturn.
Overall, this is a thing with benefits - the benefits of the alliance are greater, but it is not blood-sucking.
At the same time, the alliance's control over Saturn will also increase to a very high level. Although I didn't join the alliance, it was still better than joining.
In the future, if the situation changes, Gu Hang can ask Jue Saturn to submit an application to join the alliance at any time when he needs it. Once approved, it will be over.
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First of all, I wish you all a happy New Year!
I wish you all a Happy New Year!
This chapter has 7.2k words, more updates added!
I know that I still owe the leader 25k for extra updates. In addition, due to a business trip and illness last month, I stopped updating for three days, and I have to pay back 12k, so the total is 37k.
Today is an additional update of 3k, and I still owe 34.
I am actually very busy during the Chinese New Year period, but I will try my best to write!
(End of this chapter)