"Elder!"
Seeing that Dongfang Tuo had arrived, the important officials of the Green Wind Sector who were talking and laughing on the podium immediately stood at attention. Clenching their right fists, they slightly bowed and saluted him.
The five hundred elders of the Imperium were of the most honorable position. Even though they were not working in the army or the government, they still boasted dignity and power above everybody else because they were the Imperium!
With a gloomy face, Dongfang Tuo nodded at everybody and waved his hands casually, hinting that there was no need to be so nervous.
The Green Wind Sector was the logistics base of the expedition army of the Imperium.
"Military logistics", such a critical and profitable field, was naturally under the control of the noble families in person.
Therefore, the important officials who were qualified to stand on the podium to welcome the triumphant return of the army were all from the four Kurfürst families and their vassal forces. They were all "on the same side".
Now that they were "on the same side", they could talk freely about a lot of topics.
Different from the crazed people who were shouting "long live the Imperium" on the streets and alleys around, the important officials were not very happy in their whispers.
"Another 'glorious victory'. A new resource planet. Hehe. It's a pity that the Holy League blew up all the mines before they retreated and even polluted the mother lodes in the most sordid ways. It is estimated that the work of cleaning the pollution alone will take years, and there is no telling how much money it will cost. This is not a resource planet at all; it is another bottomless pit!"
"Yes. There are also the people left by the Holy League. They have all been seriously brainwashed and strongly resist the Imperium. I'm afraid that they cannot become good laborers for the Imperium without a long time of education. But a lot of food will have to be consumed to feed them. It is not like we can kill them all, right? Kill all the people of the dozens of Sectors that have just been recovered? Who is bold enough to make such a decision? This is really … vexing! "
"The support of the people in the rear has already reached the limits. However 'encouraging' them, their potentials cannot be triggered. Instead, the accident rate is rising nonstop. Small-scale riots are happening nonstop, too. As it happens, most of the forces of the Imperium are concentrated in the frontline and cannot suppress the riots in the rear. As a result, a terrible incident where Cultivators destroyed an entire space fortress in the Martial Meritocrats Sector in the Devilish Scorpion Nebula took place the day before yesterday. The Cultivators even hacked the Spiritual Nexus and streamed the whole process. What a shame. It is the greatest shame of the Imperium that an insignificant Cultivator …"
"An insignificant Cultivator cannot raise too much trouble, but the pressure of inflation that we are faced with right now is too great for us to handle. If the war goes on, the vicious devaluation of the crystal coins of the Imperium will be unavoidable. According to our detailed deduction, if the war goes on at the current intensity for another year with the current supply of resources, the crystal coins of the Imperium will be devalued by at least 300% by February of next year at the latest. By the end of next year, the crystal coins of the Imperium will likely be devalued by ten times. The catastrophic consequences will be even more severe than the appearance of ten thousand Cultivators!
"Therefore, the most important problem right now is how to end the war in a decent manner!"
Dongfang Tuo narrowed his eyes and remained expressionless. He seemed to be unmoved by the whispers around him, but he heard every word clearly.
He also knew that the discussions and complaints of the important officials of the Green Wind Sector were mostly meant for him, hoping that he could propose a motion in the Council of Elders to end the war as an elder of the Imperium.
However …
Dongfang Tuo sneered in his heart. Did the important officials think that the Council of Elders did not want to end the war 'in a decent manner' as soon as possible? But would the Holy League, whose flesh had just been torn off in blood, give the Imperium the 'decent' so easily?
"The bastards in the frontline do not understand the difficulties of the logistics in the rear at all. Their heads are full of nothing but fighting, fighting, and fighting! If we continue to act recklessly like this, our logistics system will completely collapse! "
"Exactly. I'm told that the twenty-seventh fleet stationed in the 'Heavenly Moon Space Zone' had a mutiny recently. The young officers at the middle and bottom-level levels are somewhat unstable and unwilling to carry out the order to 'stay where we are'. They want to continue attacking and expand the battle line."
"What are those guys with more brawn than brains up to exactly? 'Expand the battle'? After expanding the battle and recovering the new planets, are they going to feed the highly-brainwashed people up there? What a scoundrel!
"Those troublemakers only think about their own military credits and medals but never consider the big picture of the Imperium. Once their blood is boiling, they will do anything. Also, there is a very worrying phenomenon right now. The young officers from different Sectors seem to have joined hands and talked to each other. They seem to have established a lot of organizations such as' clubs' and 'unions'. There is no telling what they are up to. It is truly worrying."
"It is all because of the indulgence of the Sector Masters. The Sector Masters from the remote worlds of the Imperium are all a bunch of ambitious, selfish, shortsighted, insatiable scoundrels who never consider the big picture!"
Dongfang Tuo sighed again in his heart.
As the CEO of the Imperial Expansion Bank and the head of logistics of the expedition army who managed astronomical military assets, he knew very well what everybody was talking about.
After swallowing dozens of Sectors in a row, the Imperium had reached the limits of phased expansion. If it kept expanding blindly, it would turn into an infinitely expanding behemoth that would eventually be crushed by its own weight and explode from the inside like a whale that had been beached on the beach.
Therefore, from the perspective of the overall interests of the Imperium, both "honorable" and "unhonorable", the Imperium's counterattack that had lasted more than ten years had to be ended as soon as possible.
However, the officers in the frontline who craved to make contributions, especially the ambitious, young, and bottom-level officers who had been seriously brainwashed by the slogans of "invincibility of the Imperium" and "long live the civilization of mankind", did not think so.
They craved to make contributions, to expand their territory, to leave their names in history, and to become the most glorious heroes in the rise of the civilization of mankind!
In a universal war that spanned dozens of Sectors and thousands of lightyears, it was very difficult for the rear to effectively control the Deep Sky Fleets floating in the depths of the boundless sea of stars in the frontline.
Every Deep Sky Fleet boasted a super starship more than ten kilometers long and a self-circulating air and water purification system. They also often stored synthetic food that could last for a decade or two and that could meet the basic needs of energy despite the unpleasant smell.
With such things, every Deep Sky Fleet was a small, self-sufficient entity. Even without supplies, they could still fight for years. The so-called "Deep Sky" meant to explore, fight, and conquer the space independently.
In many cases, it was impossible for the rear to observe what the Deep Sky Fleets were doing in the frontline all the time. Even if they did, there was nothing they could do to stop them.
More importantly, the Deep Sky Fleets were not directly controlled by the four Kurfürst families.
The Imperium was simply too enormous. The boundless sea of stars determined the high difficulty of centralization. His Majesty could not completely control the entire Imperium, nor could the four Kurfürst families.
At this moment, of the hundreds of fleets that were stationed in the frontline, only half of them were directly under the four Kurfürst families, and the other half were from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium that were relatively independent.
Although the "base of the expedition army" had been established to coordinate all the fleets, the real controllers of the fleets were the Sector Masters of the peripheral worlds, who were all disobedient, greedy warlords.
Those warlords were often happy to see the radical performance of the young and middle-aged officers under their command.
After all, the more resource planets they conquered, the more military credits those warlords could accumulate themselves.
Also, before other people arrived, they could loot the planets that had just been recovered. Even if the Holy League did implement the "scorched earth strategy", as long as they were willing to dig three feet into the ground, they would still be able to find some garbage.
For the troops of the warlords whose nests were thousands of lightyears away, they did not even intend to control the resource planets at the frontline for a long time in the first place. With the idea of 'looting and leaving', they were even more unscrupulous in their actions. They were exactly like a bunch of bandits.
As for how to deal with the planets that had been scorched earth by the Holy League first and looted by the Imperium later, how to defend the ever-extending frontline, and how to increase the pressure of logistics … All the messy problems could be left to the "base of the expedition army" and the "Council of Elders" to deal with. After all, they had come back in triumph with abundant military credits and medals!
Thinking about that, Dongfang Tuo could not agree more with the evaluation of the important officials in the frontline. They were a bunch of scoundrels!
Right then, the soul-stirring march echoed. The air and the earth were shaking more and more intensely. The crowds everywhere roared at the top of their lungs like a volcano eruption, "Long live the Imperium! Long live the Imperium! Long live His Majesty! Long live the civilization of mankind! Long live the Imperium! Long live the Imperium! "
The triumphant army had arrived.
In the sky, the assault warships that looked like floating mountains slowly floated close like a hundred iron clouds. On the ground, the fully-armored, aggressive legions in Crystal Suit marched toward the main road and the podium in the magnificent drumbeats.
"Conquer! Immortal Cultivators! Vanquish all demons and monsters, demons and heretics! "
"Reign! Real human beings! Reign over the dark, cold universe! "
"Warships pass the surging tides! The glory of the Imperium shines forever! "
"Glory, Imperium! Glory, Imperium! "
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