Besides the Deep Sea Fleet, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, and the Tribunal of Extraterrestrial Devils, the fourth force that was inclined to the reformists were the relatively radical young officers in the army.
At this moment, the young soldiers from hundreds of Sectors were gathered in the frontline, devoting their youth and hot blood together to the flowers named ambitions and hope. The magnificent and cruel space war in the past ten years had completely shaped them into machines of slaughter and destruction.
It was absolutely impossible to ceasefire with the Covenant Alliance and stop the running war machine with just an order while making sure that the young officers who were as ravenous as hungry wolves did not cause any trouble.
However, the army was the most sensitive place after all. The nobles and the warlords certainly had a high control over their fleets. Li Linghai did not dare to extend her hands into the army too deeply either. Although she had been rescuing the dissidents in the army and inviting them to join the Deep Sea Fleet, she had never infiltrated the army on a large scale.
The fifth force, on the other hand, was more or less out of Li Yao’s expectation.
It was the opposition within the four Kurfürst families.
But on second thought, it did make sense. The most solid fortresses were always broken from inside. Wasn’t Li Linghai herself one of the oppositions from within the Kurfürst families?
There was also her biological brother Li Lingfeng, who had been well-acknowledged as the next leader of the family and Kurfürst. He did not believe in the fancy words of the leadership of the family either, and he established his own force through whatever means possible and came up with his enormous, clandestine plans.
It couldn’t be helped. The rule of “survival of the fittest” did not just work between the noble families and the poor families, but also the aristocrats and the civilians. The power struggles and secrets within the noble families were anything but unusual. They were even gorier than the competitions in the outside world.
When there were competitions, there were losers. Many losers who had lost everything, for their own ambitions and interests, would not hesitate to sacrifice their entire families.
The Deep Sea Fleet provided military support, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors provided capital and intelligence, and the Tribunal of Extraterrestrial Devils was responsible for the dark deals that were best not exposed. They were the three pillars for the queen of the Imperium.
Together with the young, bottom-level officers who were discontented and inclined to, or at least sympathetic for them, as well as the guys who failed the internal competitions in the four Kurfürst families and who craved for a comeback, they made up the fundamental forces of the reformists.
“There’s more to it. Besides the five forces, there are sharp contradictions among the nobles and the warlords that we can take advantage of.”
Li Linghai explained, “The four Kurfürst families are not a united piece. Their conflicts of interests are very intense too, especially those between the three families including the Li family and the Dongfang family as well as the biggest and wealthiest family known as ‘First Family’.
“When the Imperium of True Human Beings was just born, the traditional noble families including the four Kurfürst families were still hugging each other to warm each other up and check the powerful emperor at that time.
“At that time, none of them were very strong, and the emperor was their greatest opponent. They could only survive through unity.
“However, as the royal authority declined, the four Kurfürst families rose prominently. The emperor no longer a threat, they naturally grew vigilant of each other.
“It was especially so in the recent two hundred years, when the Dongfang family’s influence continued to expand. It has laid its fingers on the critical fields of the Imperium such as finance, transportation, energy, military industries, etc., and monopolized many of them. It poses a threat not just to the emperor and the low-level Immortal Cultivators but also to the other three families.
“While the other families haven’t said anything on the surface, they are naturally very dissatisfied in their hearts. There is even a trend that the three families will unite against the Dong family, just like how the four families united to check the emperor in the past.
“After the triumph in the war, dozens of important industrial worlds have been taken back, which will likely change the balance of the four Kurfürst families. So, nobody will give in regarding how the worlds should be divided. It is possible that they will end up on bad terms.
“If the enemies start to bite each other, it will be a great opportunity for the reformists to develop and flourish!
“For us, while we have to lay low for a while longer, we need to call for the army, the small nobles, the Sector Masters in the remote worlds, and all the other forces that can be united. We will expand the capabilities of the oppositions until the contrast of the two parties’ strengths is reversed.
“On the other hand, before we grow strong enough, we might as well make some deals with the other three families and put down the Dongfang family together!
“The Dongfang family is the largest Kurfürst family. Many people claim that the Dongfang family is the ‘First Family’ of the Imperium, and that the leader of the Dongfang family is the ‘uncrowned emperor’ of the Imperium. Hehe. If we can take down the Dongfang family, it will be the first barrage that marks the collapse of the old order. As long as the barrage explodes at the center of power brutally, nothing can possibly stop us from renovating the Imperium!”
Li Linghai slashed her hand down heavily, as if she were chopping an enormous family that had lasted thousands of years into pieces.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at Li Yao with passion and eagerness again. “I did not know that you were such an excellent master of refining. This is really great!
“I vaguely have a feeling that your arrival is a good sign that the reformists and the new Imperium will rise and radiate unstoppably like a morning sun!
“Right now, ‘Li Lingfeng’, my only loophole, has been completely erased. Everything is being pushed forward according to my plan. With your participation right now, I’m certain that our glory will soon arrive!”
Li Yao hesitated, “Well…”
Li Linghai frowned. “What now? Are you still bothered by your belief?”
“Not exactly.”
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao said, “I’m just flattered to be called a ‘good sign’. To be honest, nobody has ever said that I was a ‘good sign’ in my long life. Also, whenever I heard other people saying ‘everything is under control’ or ‘things are going exactly as planned’, accidents would happen shortly…”
“Huh?”
Li Linghai was slightly dazed. Right then, the crystal processor on her wrist began to buzz crazily.
It seemed to be a very private communication channel, because Li Linghai hesitated for a moment before she turned it on before Li Yao and Li Jialing.
A moment later, Li Linghai’s heart of ambitions was frozen, and ice seemed to be poking out of her every pore.
“Something is wrong.”
She gritted three words out from between her teeth.
Let the time be wound back to three days ago.
It was in the Green Wind Sector on the fourth arm in the second quadrant of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
The Green Wind Sector was one of the worlds that were closest to the frontline before the Imperium launched the splendid strategic counterattack.
Naturally, it became the home camp of the expedition army at the early phase of the war as well as a transfer base for supplies.
As the frontline was pushed forward along with the army’s victories, the home camp of the expedition army had been moved to the Sectors that had recently been recovered.
However, the logistical base of the army, which boasted hundreds of thousands of starships, was still deployed here.
Every day, billions of tons of supplies were shipped to this place from the resource planets at the remote corners of the hundreds of Sectors nationwide, before they were delivered to the fleets in the frontline after categorization and calculation.
The special location and the needs of war made the Green Wind Sector prosper abnormally. Most of the locals made a fortune more or less through the war, and their days were evidently better than before the war.
Therefore, it would not be exaggerating to say that the locals of this world were the most avid advocates of the war.
At this moment, to celebrate the recovery of an insignificant resource planet in the frontline, a triumph ceremony of an enormous scale was held in the capital of the Sector again.
The entire sky was rendered into the lightning trident flag of the Imperium by mystic rays. Balloons painted with eagles and iron fists were flying everywhere. The streets and the alleys were all ablaze with lights. Both the true human beings and the hominoids were standing on their toes waiting for the arrival of the awesome Exos of the Imperium and the assault starships. Everybody was shouting from the bottom of their heart, “Long live the Imperium! Long live the Immortal Cultivators! Long live the civilization of mankind!”
When Dongfang Tuo stepped on the podium on one side of the main avenue next to the central square of the capital, he immediately found himself drowned by the overwhelming cheers.
Before the war broke out, faced with such a zealous and “valiant” crowd, Dongfang Tuo, just like other Immortal Cultivators, was filled with excitement and pride.
But after such a long time of war, when he heard the roars for victories, the elegant-looking big shot of the Dongfang family, one of the five hundred elders in the Council of Elders of the Imperium, the CEO of the Imperial Expedition Bank, and the chief manager of the military supplies division in the expedition army, couldn’t help but sigh and furrow his eyebrows.
Triumph. Triumph. One triumph after another. When will they ever end?
Dongfang Tuo thought to himself.
For the people or the bottom-level officers in the frontline, triumphs meant military credits, medals, and infinite glories of the Imperium.
However, the big shots who were responsible for the resources and gears of the expedition army such as Dongfang Tuo knew clearly that every triumph meant that more troops had to be deployed to defend the newly-recovered territory. It would mean a longer and more fragile supply line and a “black hole” that would swallow infinite resources. Such black holes could never be filled.
From whatever perspective, the army of the Imperium had reached the limits of expansion, and it could not withstand any more of those “triumphs”.
However…
Anybody can decide when to start a war, but not everyone can decide when to stop a war!
Dongfang Tuo somehow thought of those words. He couldn’t help but put on a bitter smile.
Naturally, he did not let the bitter smile that represented his real feelings to last for more than half a second. Instead, he simply coughed and put on a solemn expression, before he made his way to the middle of the leadership of the government and the military who had medals and sashes all over their chests, waiting for the arrival of the victorious troop.
The sound of the assault warships tearing apart the clouds was already vaguely coming over from the sky not far away.
The earth began to shake slightly, implying that the iron hooves of the Imperium of True Human Beings that could stomp on everything were approaching.
At that time, the elder of the Imperium did not know yet that there were only 32 minutes and 47 seconds to go before the end of his life.
His killer, on the other hand, would not be the inhumane people of the Covenant Alliance who were like machines made of flesh and blood, but the army of the Imperium that he was waiting for.