Resurrection Empire

Page 533

Southgate feels he has everything under control.

Of course, since he still failed to install spies, he didn't know that the industrial machines and scientific research machines in all the ships in the Origin Star Fleet were fully fired.

That must be something he has never seen before, the explosive power that a real human civilization should have.

After arranging everything properly, Ren Zhong once again entered into a frozen slumber.

Time flies, he has been asleep for five years, during which he woke up several times intermittently due to important matters, but it took less than a month.

But most of the others don't get this kind of treatment, after all, there are too many specific tasks that need to be done in the fleet.

Chen Yinghua, the general manager of Commercial Transport Company, has been working here for many years, and has traveled a lot of business routes in the Nanxiang star cluster. He has established a lot of contacts and is also familiar with the business environment of the Nanxiang star cluster.

It's just a pity that the nearly [-] annual ships in the fleet are already overcrowded, and they are mostly used for residential purposes, so they really can't be used for transportation tasks.

For the time being, the commercial transportation company still only has [-] annual ships available, and cannot expand.

The enhancement of the fleet to the commercial transport company is mainly due to the fact that each annual ship can be equipped with some special small ships such as eye ships and shuttle ships, which can increase the armed force of the fleet and take some risks that could not be taken before. logistics and transportation work.

But the strange thing is that just as Chen Yinghua was ready to do a big job with all his strength, he was very embarrassed to find that many parties who had cooperated with him happily for many years all chose to suspend their cooperation.

Obviously, the complete blockade of the Nanxiang Earl's Mansion and the Nanjiu Viscount came into effect, in order to cut off the source of income of the Yuanxing Fleet from the source.

The complete blockade has indeed caused heavy damage to the Yuanxing Fleet. What's worse, due to the delay in fully developing the South Nine C, the Yuanxing Fleet has almost no special products to sell to the outside world.

For many return fleets that trace colonies, there is another big business that is particularly common, which is the human trade.

Based on the average professional level, knowledge level, and genetic level of the crew members of the Origin Star Fleet, they must be regarded as high-quality population in the Nanxiang star cluster, and they will definitely not worry about selling.

In fact, many viscount and baron families in the Nanxiang star cluster have tried to contact Ren Zhong, expressing their willingness to buy some high-quality population from the Origin Star Fleet at a high price to increase the diversity of the family and optimize genetic information.

This so-called "optimization", to put it bluntly, is because the human beings on Yuanxing have been developed for thousands of years and dozens of generations, and they are no longer attacked by the inferior genes injected by Nan Xiangbo. They can be regarded as pure genes with more potential. , is the best "thoroughbred".

If these nobles need to hire people with heavy responsibilities to work, then maybe they can still talk about it.However, according to the transaction terms provided by these people, the express text emphasizes the commodity attributes of these populations.If the people were really sold, Ren Zhong felt that these people would never have the opportunity to display their ambitions. They could only be "stallions" who would work hard for a lifetime, unable to get in touch with any substantive work, and they would be slaves at all.

Therefore, even though Ren Zhong salivated at other people's offers, he finally rejected all the population trade invitations without hesitation, and cut off another important source of income.

The Academy of Fleet Science has also thought about taking on some commissioned scientific research tasks with its own research and development capabilities.But the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.No matter for any force, scientific research projects are the core field.If anyone dares to entrust the scientific research project to the Yuanxing Fleet at this time, it means that he has chosen a clear position in the battle between the two earls of the Nanxiang Star Cluster.

Unless one day Ren Zhong breaks Liu An's power blockade, or the people of Yuanxing show the ability to turn stones into gold in the field of scientific research that no one else has, it is impossible to receive orders in the short term.

To sum up, the current economic source of the fleet is only the auxiliary scientific computing project led by the Royal Academy of Sciences.

This so-called auxiliary scientific computing project is actually the same thing as the contribution points that people can get after using watches to hypnotize on Yuanxing, the difference is that the treatment is more generous.

In addition, after all, they have arrived in the empire, the people of Yuanxing can still use the ready-made contribution points to buy anti-aging medicines developed by the Royal Academy of Sciences and produced by the pharmaceutical factory entrusted by the Augustus family to prolong their lifespan.

According to the imperial law, Southgate cannot cut off the supply of this potion.

It is foreseeable that in the near future, the average lifespan of the Origin Star Fleet will soon catch up to the average level of the Mechanical Empire.

This is also the reason why many middle- and upper-level managers no longer have to count their own life spans as before, but have to freeze them from time to time.

Fleet Command has nothing to do about the dilemma of the commercial transport company. It simply takes advantage of the situation to carry out a comprehensive transformation of the annual ship held by the commercial transport company, and continuously installs more laser emitters below it.

At this point, the fleet has completed most of the transformation work.

Exactly one thousand light energy capture sails belonging to the source star have also begun to orbit the Nanjiu star in a close orbit.

Many scientific research projects related to the planetary transformation plan are also advancing steadily.

Ren Zhong must face a new dilemma.

The problem still lies in the collection of nuclear fusion raw materials.

When formulating the plan, Ren Zhong and the fleet members had considered the external environment difficult enough, but the reality was still surprising.

What he encountered was an all-round blockade at the level of trade, economy, resources, and technology. It was really airtight and there were no dead ends.

The fleet of 40 billion people obviously lives within the territory of the empire and has the ability to sail through the starry sky, but they are forced to live a poor life isolated from the world and secluded.

If nuclear fusion materials such as hydrogen isotopes can only be captured piecemeal from the stellar wind near Nanjiuxing, the originally planned 16-year preparation period will have to be extended to at least 25 years.

The conventional reserve super-power batteries have long been exhausted, and the fleet has to continue to consume resources to release high-energy lasers to drive away white flying ants, maintain scientific research progress, maintain and renovate ships, maintain the ecological environment of ships, and produce daily necessities.There are expenditures in all aspects, and they are not small. Now the fleet can only save food and money, and it will take years and months to get what they want.

In the hall of the throne, Ren Zhong, who had just woken up, held a meeting again.

Previously, he had checked the development of the fleet at an extremely fast speed.

For five years, many things have gone according to plan.

The transformation of laser transmitters for white ants has been half completed, and now [-] annual ring merchant ships have completed technical transformation and personnel training.These former merchant ships are now revolving around Nanjiuc.One after another high-energy lasers are scanning down from high altitude, driving the white ants to the two focal points.Due to the insufficient density of the high-energy laser, the white ants have not been completely driven away yet.However, the Fleet Academy of Sciences conducted research on the living habits of a small number of white ants that were hunted and raised artificially, and felt that it was just right to maintain the current intensity.If the density of white ants at the two hot and cold poles of Nanjiu C is really exceeded by continuous driving, it is possible for the white ants to invade the star mantle in advance.

The battleship transformation is progressing faster.

The original nearly [-] armed warships have been reduced to a total of [-] ships.

Although a lot of equipment was installed and the performance parameters of many core components were changed, the internal space of the battleship did not expand, but became smaller.

The original daily living space with leisure and entertainment functions was all demolished and rebuilt into functional modules related to military capabilities.Instead, the number of people on board each ship has increased to 6, and the per capita living space has dropped by a full 80%, from single rooms in the past to multi-person dormitories.Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian don't think this is a problem.

The core reason why the previous armed warships had to reserve so much living space was that the voyage was too long, and the warships must also have living functions, otherwise it would be psychologically unbearable for people to live in it from generation to generation.

Times have changed. For today's armed forces, it is no longer necessary to consider the routine quality of life. Soldiers should have the attitude of soldiers.

The military system has also been reorganized, and 2000 million people have passed the selection and become the new face of the streamlined and powerful army.

Some of the other 8000 million grassroots soldiers were assigned to the [-]-year-old ship of Yuanxing Commercial Transport, and some were still on the annual ship.

Other scientific research work related to planetary transformation is still in full swing.

Some projects that researchers did not dare to promise in the past can finally give an exact timetable, such as new three-phase nuclear fusion blasting technology, reflector technology, white ant ecological research, and new stellar wind plasma capture technology.

When all the problems are brought together and then fully demonstrated, the real core problem is re-converged at one point, which is still the timely collection of nuclear fusion materials.

The blockade of Viscount Nanjiu and Uncle Nanxiang must be broken to obtain more nuclear fusion materials.

At the meeting, someone pointed out that Uncle Nanxiang was deceiving others too much. Since the other party did not follow the rules and became the first grader of junior high school, he might as well be the fifteenth grader himself. collect.Anyway, those are unowned things, so we can't even pick up things on the ground.

But the proposal was quickly rejected.It's not that the laws of the empire do not allow it, but that if you want to go to other stars, you need to use the warp subspace channel to cross the long distance.It takes a lot of energy to go in and out of the subspace channel every time. After converting it, there is really not much surplus left for a round trip.It is really time-consuming, labor-intensive and inefficient to go out to secretly collect. It is not very helpful.

Ma Xiaoling suggested, simply steal or snatch it, there are ready-made gaseous planets in the Nanjiu galaxy, if you don't grab it, don't grab it.Her bad idea was immediately suppressed.God knows how many pairs of eyes are staring at the Yuanxing Fleet. Whether it is stealing or robbing, as long as Liu An catches them, they will definitely make a fuss and become a heavy stain.

When everyone else was running out of ideas, Ren Zhong finally came up with his plan with a smile.

A month later, Ren Zhong and Viscount Wen Yuanbo issued a joint statement, stating that the two had reached a strategic partnership.

Three months later, an armed transport team composed of [-] improved warships, led by Ren Zhong, the imperial driver, set off from the South Nine C and entered the Warp Subspace Passage.

Eighteen months later, the fleet crossed half of the Nanxiang star cluster, appeared at the other end away from the Nanjiu star, and moved towards the broken star ring on the other side at 0.15 times the speed of light.

At this point, Ren Zhong's purpose is clearly revealed.

Leaving the exit of the warping subspace channel and continuing to go out, there is a strategic ultra-long-distance star gate at a distance of 0.12 light years.

This ultra-remote stargate is under the direct jurisdiction of the officials sent by the royal family, and it is a giant space station hundreds of times larger than the Observatory.

Liu An's main fiefdoms are also near this star gate space station, and they are most closely connected with the center of the empire.

The outer part of the giant space station, at a distance of 0.11 light-years, is the area closest to the Broken Star Ring and the Nanxiang star cluster, and it is also the area with the highest density of space pirates.

In the entire Nanxiang star cluster, the fattest hunting area is the 0.12 light-year distance from the subspace channel to the Stargate space station.

A large number of space pirates use different methods to lurk here, just like hungry wolves in the forest spying on every fat sheep caravan that can undertake long-distance trade at the star cluster level, but is unwilling to pay a lot of money to hire a security officer from Nanxiang Earl's Mansion .

The private army of Uncle Nanxiang nearby turned a blind eye to these pirates.

The powerful Imperial fleet guarding the giant space station also rarely interferes with the behavior of space pirates.

The motivations of the two are quite different.

The reason why the Nanxiang Earl's Mansion stayed on the sidelines was that they had a deep connection with the pirates.

The imperial fleet was too lazy to interfere in the internal friction between these inferior people. This was originally the strategy of the empire to raise Gu. Anyway, no pirate would dare to challenge the majesty of the regular army of the empire.

In the Earl's Mansion of Nanxiang, the person in charge of the secret service who was in contact with Southgate just got the news from the eyeliner of the supply space station near the subspace passage, and immediately analyzed it and quickly came to a conclusion.

Obviously, Ren Zhong received a large order across star clusters through the Royal Viscount Wen Yuanbo.

The reward for this order was even rich enough to reverse his plight, so he decided to take the risk and lead the team to set off in person, trying to break through the dangerous pirate area and complete this large order.

The Chief of Secret Service gave orders through a secret channel.

This order appeared synchronously in front of the leader of the most active large-scale pirate group in the vicinity, the Storm.

The Storm Pirates have excellent ships that can travel at 0.2 times the speed of light.

In terms of speed and maneuverability, the strength of the Storm Pirates surpassed the Shattered Starlink.

Even if they just set off from the base now, there is every chance to intercept the Origin Star Fleet before it reaches the star gate.

Chapter 504 Bright Sword

Two thousand brand-new armed warships are transporting "void" goods, slowly crossing the safe boundary of the Nanxiang star cluster, and advancing quietly along a waterway that is recognized as very dangerous at a so-called extreme speed of 0.15 times the speed of light. .

At this time, a large number of information flow radars were repeatedly scanning the armed merchant fleet from far or near, and countless pairs of eyes were quietly watching the two thousand green light spots in the star map.

Behind this seemingly inconspicuous voyage, it symbolizes that the Nanxiang Star Cluster once again ushered in a secret confrontation between the two earls after years of silence.

This may be the first time that Yuan Xingbo, an outsider, made it clear that his chariots and horses were trying to get rid of Nanxiang Bo's oppression.

It may well be the last time.

Many people feel extremely puzzled.

If Uncle Yuan Xing stays honestly on Nanjiu c, at worst he will not achieve anything during the [-]-year assessment period. After this day is over, he will be a serious earl after all, and he will be able to get food towns and fiefdoms from dozens of galaxies, and become a new comfort Bo one.

The so-called Anlebo refers to this kind of earl who does not have any control over his own food.The actual controller of Shiyi is an official appointed by the royal family, who only needs to give Anlebo a certain percentage of tax commissions on a regular basis.

There are not many such earls in the empire.Not every family has a talented and strategic head.Rather than let the waste prodigal, it is better to honestly entrust it to an official like a professional manager, so that at least it can ensure that there will be no worries about food and clothing for generations to come.

Although it is a bit embarrassing to say the name Anlebo, but the treatment is better than that of the Viscount, and it is a comfortable life that countless people can't envy. .

But this Yuan Xingbo refused to accept his fate, even without leaving any descendants, he personally led the troops out to do logistics and business operations that low-level talents would do, and took the initiative to plunge into dangerous situations, which is really confusing.

If Uncle Yuan Xing died right away, then the title of earl he had just obtained would be in vain, and his work would be wasted.

It's ridiculous that he doesn't seem to have this self-knowledge.

On the other side, Viscount Southgate of Nanjiu and the chief spy in the Earl's residence of Nanxiang were already enjoying themselves.

The spies of the Storm Pirates used their technological advantages to quietly approach the fleet's tens of billions of kilometers when the Origin Star Merchant Fleet first set off, and clung to it, gaining an absolute advantage in intelligence.

The three leaders of the pirate group even led the elite assault fleet to set off brazenly from the base and charge straight away.

No one knows that in the command ship of the Armed Merchant Fleet, Ren Zhong is leading Zheng Tian, ​​Vincent Van Hoy and others to fully deduce the strength of the Storm Pirates, the performance of the warships, and the capabilities of individual soldiers. Repeated combat simulation.

The small reconnaissance ship from the Storm Pirates, which received the information flow radar technology and primary camouflage stealth technology shared by the Nanxiang Earl's Mansion, failed to remain invisible in the radar of the merchant fleet at all, but was like a light in the night sky. Shining like a bright lamp, every move is under control.

In terms of the information flow radar and the stealth performance of the ship, the technology has been completely innovated in a very short period of time, and the armed fleet that used the precious paint synthesized from the wreckage of the fourth-class queen's multiplication daughter completely defeated the Storm Pirates.

"On the surface, I am in the light, and the enemy is in the dark. But the actual situation is completely opposite. The Storm Pirates can only dispatch a thousand assault fleets known for their speed to pursue us, no matter in terms of troop composition, weaponry, or It is the level of information warfare, and we all have an absolute advantage. I have only one request, that we must wipe out all of them, not letting any one go, and we must not leak a single word of information. For the legendary third son of the storm, try to capture it alive. Liu An is not Want to figure out what our combat power is? I asked him to understand a little bit, but he didn't quite understand it, so he was in a fog, and told him to guess slowly."

At the pre-war discussion meeting, Ren Zhong said so in the headquarters.

Decades ago, he was indeed extremely afraid of the pirate forces in the Broken Star Ring. In order to avoid possible pirate coalition forces, he even chose to take a long way to go quietly.

However, in the 30 years of Hedong and the 30 years of Hexi, today's armed fleet has undergone a five-year comprehensive upgrade, and its comprehensive war strength has more than doubled.

Moreover, Ren Zhong also used the advance information collection and overall layout to determine that this time he only needs to face a mere storm pirate group, rather than an overwhelming coalition force.

There's no reason why he couldn't get off to a good start.

……

Five and a half months later, the scattered armed merchant fleet is slowing down slightly, preparing to leave the bustling main channel along an arc and take a remote channel that is inaccessible.

According to the common sense of commercial companies in the Nanxiang star cluster, although the fleet on the main channel is often intercepted and killed by space pirates, after all, the pirates have more targets to choose from, and it may not be their turn to be unlucky.

Furthermore, on this main channel, there will eventually be patrols by the security fleet under the jurisdiction of the Nanxiang Star Cluster Army and Political Hub, which will form a certain deterrent to the looting of space pirates, so even if they are attacked, they will rarely be completely wiped out. There is always a chance that some people will survive.

The survival rate of the most powerful caravan main ship is not bad, and the middle and high-level caravans can always survive.

But on the remote channel, the probability of the caravan encountering space pirates becomes lower, and the chance of bringing all the cargo ships to arrive safely increases.

But risks and benefits always coexist.

If there is a space pirate with a clear goal that has been staring at this fleet from the beginning, once it is attacked in a remote and inaccessible channel, it often means hopeless total destruction.

In the Nanxiang Star Cluster, many people were shocked when they found out that the Armed Merchant Fleet of Origin Star had chosen to change its course.

In short, the behavior of the fleet entering the remote waterway is like a boulder being thrown into a calm lake, causing ripples.This up-and-coming noble who just became an earl has entered a dead end.

Because Yuan Xingbo's fate was doomed, the Nanjiu C clan, who were not loved by grandpa and grandma in the Nanxiang star cluster, suddenly became popular again.