Chapter 14: Oxygen Deprivation
Don’t misunderstand; Gu Hang certainly wasn’t delusional enough to think that with four hundred men and four armored vehicles, he could rely on force to take Revival City.
That was unrealistic.
Revival City is the capital of the Alliance, a place with a permanent population of 130,000 and several times that number in refugees, all dependent on the city.
It directly or indirectly controls hundreds of surrounding survivor settlements, large and small.
Its conventional military force consists of tens of thousands of fully armed soldiers, a significant number of artillery pieces, locally produced tanks, and propeller aircraft.
If necessary, they could even enlist a number of mercenaries far exceeding their standing forces.
In terms of military strength, the disparity is too great.
However, Gu Hang’s goal of taking over Revival City doesn’t necessarily have to rely on military means.
At least, not through ground forces.
Sending his four hundred men to trouble Revival City would indeed be like eggs hitting a rock. But in orbit, the Quintet is floating there, with its starship macro cannons aimed at Revival City.
The power of an orbital bombardment is enough to erase the city from the surface in a day.
This is the greatest military deterrence.
Another approach is through political means, leveraging legitimacy.
Gu Hang is the planetary governor, and the Alliance government is theoretically the only legitimate authority on Fury Owl Planet, making him the natural highest leader of the Alliance.
Historically, every planetary governor who came to this planet landed in Revival City, inherited the Alliance’s authority, and then exercised the governor’s power.
In fact, Gu Hang initially intended to do the same.
When he first acquired the system and hoped to secure a territory of his own, he thought he had a dream start.
Upon landing, the entire planet would be his territory, and the system’s fixed income would be maxed out. Then, relying on the system, any trouble on the planet would be easily handled, and he could comfortably farm for two years without worrying about taxes.
Reality quickly slapped him in the face.
Upon landing, he received a warm welcome, but the system remained silent, not recognizing his nominal leadership over Revival City, let alone the entire planet.
Thus, the grand Governor Gu Hang had to go out on his own.
He had his reasons for this.
Firstly, without the system’s recognition of his territory, he couldn’t activate the system’s capabilities or obtain any income or gifts.
Without the system’s functionality, he had to find a way to make its capabilities useful, or else his golden finger would be wasted.
The second layer, the system not recognizing the territory, indicates significant troubles within Revival City.
It would be hard for Gu Hang to gain real power through political maneuvering.
Gu Hang, a transmigrator who had never learned the art of political intrigue, didn’t believe he had the capability to compete with the local power brokers.
Even having the Quintet in the sky doesn’t help; orbital bombardment is a last resort.
Could he really flatten Revival City?
That would be mutually assured destruction, not to be used unless absolutely necessary, at most serving as a deterrent.
The third layer, based on the first two points, made it clear why previous governors couldn’t resolve the core issues on Fury Owl Planet.
Besides the harsh environment, numerous dangers, and insufficient productivity of Fury Owl Planet itself, it seemed they also couldn’t fully and completely grasp power.
The objective conditions were poor, and internal strife was common, so it was normal for them not to develop or pay the Empire’s taxes.
Gu Hang couldn’t tread the same old path; otherwise, his prospects would be bleak.
It was because of these multifaceted factors that he decided to strike out on his own.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want Revival City.
It’s the largest nearby settlement with abundant manpower, a developed light industry system, and a commercial trading hub.
Gu Hang still needed to take it, and he couldn’t afford to delay for too long; otherwise, if he relied solely on slow development, he would inevitably fail to pay the taxes in two years and face execution.
He probably had some ideas on how to proceed.
“Connect me to Revival City,” Gu Hang called out.
“Yes!” Zhang Chao responded loudly and began operating the radio.
He was the only person who had followed Gu Hang from his family, serving as his attendant, a rather clever young man.
Soon, the communication was established, and a worn-out, elderly voice sounded from the radio’s speaker: “Governor, good day. This is Revival City, I am Millian Hodgson.”
The man claiming to be Millian Hodgson was someone Gu Hang had met once when he first landed on this planet.
This dignified old man was the head of the Alliance Council.
During the absence of a planetary governor, he and the council he led were the actual rulers of Revival City.
Upon the appointment of a new governor, he was supposed to retire to a secondary role, serving as an advisor and staff to the governor.
However, clearly, Gu Hang, an unconventional governor, had caught Hodgson completely off guard.
Weary.
Facing Hodgson, Gu Hang was not as polite as he was when speaking with Alicia Ye.
He was not interested in persuasion or reasoning but instead directly issued his demands in a commanding tone:
“I need one hundred tons of food, ten thousand sets of textile garments, and various types of industrial consumer goods. I will provide you with a list, and I want it delivered to my camp within a week.”
After these words, there was silence on the other end for quite a while.
Gu Hang furrowed his brows: “Respond!”
He seemed very dissatisfied.
A hesitant young voice came through: “Gove… Governor… the Council Head, he… he…”
“What about him?”
“The Council Head has fainted!”
“Uh…”
Gu Hang’s first reaction was disbelief.
How could someone faint so easily?
I only asked for a tiny bit of stuff.
However, judging by the chaotic sounds from the radio, it seemed somewhat real.
His second reaction was a small sense of guilt.
Was it too harsh to shock someone like that?
And his third reaction was, ‘Why the hell should I feel guilty, he had it coming’.
He had done it on purpose, and Hodgson fainting was an unexpected incident, but it wasn’t a big deal.
Gu Hang cleared his throat and continued: “Anyway, you’ve all heard my demands, this is an order from the Governor. The supplies must not be short, and there must be no delay, that’s all.”
…
Some dozens of minutes later, in Revival City, inside the Council Hall.
The old man with silver hair was breathing heavily with an oxygen mask on.
After waking up, Hodgson had summoned the Alliance Council and disclosed the Governor’s demands to all the council members.
The members were agitated, and the hall erupted into chaos.
Hodgson, still wearing his oxygen mask, felt an even greater headache, with darkness encroaching upon his vision.
He sadly thought that at this rate, he wouldn’t live much longer.
He had to forcefully bang the table for several minutes before the noise below gradually subsided.
He took a deep breath of oxygen, then slowly removed his mask, and said, “Continuing to argue won’t yield any results, let’s vote. I want to see how many dare to defy the Governor’s orders under the threat of the Empire’s cruiser’s orbital cannon.”