"Wouldn't he be the bane of space pirates?"
Li Yao was greatly interested in the maverick General Lei Chenghu. He could not help but wonder what kind of interesting sparks would be raised if Lei Chenghu's fleet ran into Lei Chenghu's fleet.
"Under General Lei Chenghu's suppression," Li Linghai continued, "the space pirates in the dozens of Sectors in the fourth quadrant of the Imperium are almost extinct. Even the Sector Masters and the warlords of other Sectors are shuddering in fear under his iron fists, not having the courage to act recklessly."
"Wait."
Li Yao frowned. "Isn't General Lei going to fight space pirates? What does he have to do with the Sector Masters and the warlords of other Sectors?"
"You are new to this place. You don't know what the space pirates wandering in the vast sea of stars of the Imperium are all about."
Li Linghai explained, "Think about it. The Imperium unified the center of the cosmos a thousand years ago and boasted an unparalleled military force. How could there be space pirates and bandits?"
Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that it did make sense. The last Sector that he encountered where the space pirates were particularly rampant was the Flying Star Sector, where there was barely a unified government and the major sects were loosely united.
Later, the space pirates of the Flying Star Sector were choked by the 'Grand Illusionary Soldier Project' that the six major sects proposed. Their space of activity was smaller and smaller, and they were on the verge of death.
Had the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project not been a malicious scheme in the first place, the space pirates of the Flying Star Sector would've been annihilated.
But here came the problem. The so-called 'Grand Illusionary Soldiers' were based on the technology of remote control of battle puppets of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
If the Flying Star Sector could annihilate space pirates with such technology, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers of the Imperium of True Human Beings should be even more advanced. How could they be helpless against the insignificant space pirates?
"In the Imperium, the guys who are called 'space pirates' on the surface are actually 'privateers' to be more exact."
Li Linghai sniffed and said, "The Imperium is too vast and boundless. There are all kinds of contradictions between the nobles and the emperor, the nobles and the magnates, and the magnates and the sects. It is impossible to establish a powerful government to directly control the local areas. We have to adopt a way similar to the ancient feudal system to make the local areas self-govern.
"It is needless to say that the territories directly under the four Kurfürst families are independent kingdoms. They have the power to levy taxes, mint coins, expand armies, and even corrupt the capital.
"Even the Sector Masters and warlords in the peripheral worlds are lawless dominators who only care about their own territory. For the interests of trade routes, resource planets, world fragments, and so on, they often have conflicts with their neighbors.
"In the meantime, the four Kurfürst families, in order to check and balance the smaller nobles and warlords in the peripheral worlds, intentionally let them fight each other and also supported them in secret to expand the friction.
"Of course, on the surface, everybody is a citizen of the Imperium and an Immortal Cultivator. The lightning trident emblem is painted on the starships and the Crystal Suit. It is impossible for them to drag their fleets out and fight each other openly. So, they often settle their conflicts in one of two ways.
"On the surface, the way that is protected by the laws of the Imperium is the form of 'arena matches'.
"When there is a trade conflict or a competition of mining resources, the Imperium will send out as many experts as possible to compete fairly in the arena. There will be no regrets.
"The Imperium highly worships strength. Such a way of settling conflicts is supported by most people. It has even evolved into a very popular form of entertainment. When two relatively large worlds send out famous experts to 'settle the conflicts', it is possible that billions of eyes will be attracted. It is much more popular than any slaughter stream platform.
"In the early years, the order and atmosphere of the Imperium were not corrupted yet. Most of the Immortal Cultivators still remembered the glory of the past and respected and acknowledged the system of 'arena matches'. If they lost in the arena, they would carry out the verdict dutifully and give away part of their interests.
"However, the Imperium has been decaying for a thousand years. Today, in the age where etiquette has collapsed and honor and laws are gone, more and more people do not think that the system of 'arena matches' is a big deal.
"Since it is impossible to seize the clandestine interests with the army of the Imperium under their command openly, the 'privateers' have been born.
"They are space pirates in name, but in fact, they are supported by the warlords and nobles, including the four Kurfürst families. Many of the 'space pirates' are even made of the regular army in disguise.
"Many Immortal Cultivators are well-dressed, dignified heroes of the upper-class society in their own Sectors. Some of them are even barons and counts in the Imperium. But when they sneak into other Sectors without a sound, they will turn into murderous, bloodthirsty bandits after they shake their heads!"
"Hiss …"
Li Yao took a deep breath. He was naturally no stranger to the meaning of 'privateers'. As it turned out, they were space pirates with official licenses who had the support of the authorities in terms of logistics and distribution. They were ten times more difficult to deal with than regular space pirates!
Li Linghai continued, "The dozens of Sectors in the fourth quadrant of the Imperium are almost all the territories of the smaller nobles and the local warlords. Their territories are deeply entangled with each other, and the conflicts between them are very frequent.
"When there are too many conflicts, the space pirates — or privateers — will be as many as the hairs on a cow. You rob me today, and I'll kill you tomorrow. Although the intensity of the battles is not high, the fires of war have been burning for a hundred years. Not only are the people suffering, but the local warlords and Sector Masters are also mired in meaningless wars of attrition. There is no sign of complete peace, either.
"General Lei Chenghu seems to be annihilating the space pirates on the surface, but in fact, he is trying to settle the chaos in the fourth quadrant and establish a stable order."
Li Yao exclaimed in surprise. He felt more and more that the 'God of War' Lei Chenghu was not a common Immortal Cultivator.
"At first, nobody believed that Lei Chenghu could settle the mess in the fourth quadrant that had been brewing for a long time. Nobody even knew his ambitions. General Lei has always been a man who works without talking."
Li Linghai said in a respectful tone, "General Lei visited one Sector after another at first and found the local rulers, hoping that they could establish a small organization to combat the rampant space pirates. In order to avoid irritating the capital, the organization was simply named 'Sailing Route Guards', which was a relatively low-key name.
"At that time, nobody knew how terrifying General Lei Chenghu was. Everybody took him for a fool. Even though they listened to him patiently for the sake that he was the leader of the 'Lei family of Guangyuan' and saw him out of the gate politely, they still couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Leaving aside the fact that the so-called space pirates were in fact privateers or even the regular army of each family in disguise, how could the so-called 'Sailing Route Guards' work out when the dozens of families were not united?"
"Nobody thought much of General Lei, and nobody took the young leader's words seriously. Many people were shaking their heads and sighing. The Lei family of Guangyuan was a noble family with a history of almost a thousand years. It seemed that the family was going to decline very soon because of such an idiotic leader.
"However, within half a year, after General Lei annihilated three privateer fleets unstoppably, the Sector Masters and the warlords realized that they were wrong. Very wrong.
"General Lei was serious. He was truly determined to end the chaos in the fourth quadrant at the cost of all the resources that the Lei family of Guangyuan had accumulated over the past thousand years, as well as his own life and even his soul.
"In the beginning, General Lei Chenghu was not a gifted general who commanded troops like a god, nor was he a politician who had every conceivable possibility. He was just a selfless man who was nothing more than 'conscientious'.
"All the Sector Masters and the warlords were selfish. They wanted to avoid the sharpness and preserve their strength. They did not have the courage to confront General Lei's fleet head-on. Instead, they planned to lead General Lei's troops to other places. They even offered a lot of supplies and intelligence to General Lei just to divert the trouble.
"General Lei, on the other hand, regarded every battle to annihilate the space pirates as the last battle where he would die together with them. He did not consider the interests of his own fleet at all. Naturally, he was invincible.
"The art of commanding that was slightly green and immature at the beginning was gradually polished in the decades of battles. It was a way of commanding troops that was mainly vigorous and dense and supplemented by unpredictability and agility.
"Then, with his selfless sincerity, he traveled among the warlords and the local magnates for decades, trying his best to resolve the conflicts between them and show them the benefits of letting go of the frictions and trading with each other. Gradually, the foundation for the existence of the privateer fleets was eliminated.
"Just like that, decades later, the organization named 'Sailing Route Guards' was truly established!
"Although the name was' Sailing Route Guards', which sounded like a cooperation organization of the police forces of various worlds, it was actually an enormous organization that included military cooperation, trade agreements, the coordination of tax rates in various worlds, and even development banks.
"It was even safe to say that it was a quasi-alliance among the peripheral worlds of the fourth quadrant of the Imperium that spanned military, politics, and economics!
"After completely crushing all the privateer fleets of two Sectors that refused to obey the orders of the 'Sailing Route Guards', and after the coalition army marched toward their capitals, nobody dared to doubt General Lei's authority at the periphery of the fourth quadrant anymore."
Hearing that, Li Yao's eyes were glittering. He couldn't help but remark, "This General Lei Chenghu, if he is not a model soldier who is truly selfless, he must be an ambitious schemer who hides a lot!"
Li Linghai smiled and nodded. "Yes. At that time, everybody thought that General Lei Chenghu must be a deeply ambitious schemer who had been pretending to be selfless for decades before he finally became the 'leader' of the worlds at the periphery of the fourth quadrant.
"Even the four Kurfürst families were shocked by General Lei Chenghu's performance. They considered him a major problem and tried to deal with him.
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