Resurrection Empire

From the perspective of Viscount Nan Jiu, the Source Star Fleet was completely in a predicament with nothing to do.

For seven whole days, the Source Star Fleet never sent a single ship to land. It only continued to conduct high-altitude exploration like a bunch of flies.

It doesn't matter if the Source Star Fleet does not land, but has begun to dismantle the armed ships. It seems that it is planning to build stronger ships by demolishing the east wall to repair the west wall.

Viscount Nan Jiu once thought that Ren Zhong's plan was to try to strengthen the structure of the ship to force a landing.

He was laughing, just waiting for a good show in his heart.

He especially wanted to know the wonderful expression on Ren Zhong's face when he discovered that the landing ship he had carefully prepared had fallen, but found that no matter how strong the structure was, it was impossible to resist the Star Destroyer Ants.

But Southgate was confused after a moment.

Yuan Xingbo must be a smart man. Now that he has discovered Star Destroyer Ants, he will definitely find ways to test the characteristics of this strange life. He should not be unable to judge that no matter how strong the ship is, it will only become a more powerful version of Star Destroyer Ants. The reality of a delicious meal.

After wondering for a while, Southgate no longer cared about it.

He also remembered that five days ago, he used his power as the director of the Military and Political Department of the Nanjiu System to forcefully reject Ren Zhong's application to seize the Nanjiu Star's light energy and stellar wind material beyond the quota.

Thinking that Ren Zhong could no longer pretend to be profound at that time, and could only act like he was angry, yelling, and incompetent, Southgate burst out laughing, overjoyed and satisfied.

According to imperial law, since Ren Zhong owns a planet in the Nanjiu system, he has certain rights to exploit stellar energy.

But based on the mining rights designated by the empire, it would take at least forty years to obtain enough nuclear fusion energy.

Southgate feels in control.

Of course, since he had never been able to successfully place spies, he did not know that the industrial machines and scientific research machines in all the ships in the Source Star Fleet were in full swing.

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

After arranging everything properly, Ren Zhong entered cryo-sleep again.

Time flies, and he has been sleeping for five years. During this period, he woke up intermittently due to important matters, but the total time spent did not exceed a month.

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

Chen Yinghua, the general manager of the commercial transportation company, has been working here for many years and has traveled many business routes in the Nanxiang star cluster. He has established many personal connections and is familiar with the business environment of the Nanxiang star cluster.

It's just a pity that the nearly 8,000 annual ships in the fleet are already overcrowded. They are more used for residential purposes and cannot be used for transportation tasks.

For the time being, the commercial transportation company still only has a thousand annual ships available and cannot expand.

The enhancement of the fleet to the commercial transportation company mainly lies in the fact that each annual ship can be equipped with some special small ships such as eye ships and shuttle ships, which can improve the armed strength of the fleet to bear some risks that could not be borne before. Logistics and transportation work.

But the strange thing is that just when Chen Yinghua was getting ready for a big fight, he was very embarrassed to find that many parties who had happily cooperated with him for many years had chosen to terminate the cooperation.

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

The comprehensive blockade has indeed caused heavy damage to the Source Star Fleet. What is even worse is that due to the delay in fully developing Nanjiu C, the Source Star Fleet has almost no special products to sell to the outside world.

For many returning fleets looking for 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 Source Star Fleet, they must be regarded as a high-quality population in the Nanxiang Star Cluster, and they will definitely not worry about sales.

In fact, many viscounts in the Nanxiang Star Cluster have tried to contact the Baron family and expressed their willingness to pay high prices to purchase some high-quality people from the Source Star Fleet to increase the family's diversity and optimize genetic information.

This so-called "optimization", to put it bluntly, is because after thousands of years and dozens of generations of development, the humans of the Origin Star are no longer affected by the inferior genes injected by Uncle Nanxiang. They can be regarded as pure genes with greater potential. To put it bluntly, , is the best "thoroughbred stallion".

If these nobles need to hire heavy-duty people to work, then maybe we can still talk about it. However, according to the transaction terms provided by these people, the commodity attributes of these people are clearly emphasized. If people are really sold, Ren Zhong feels that these people will never have the opportunity to display their ambitions. They can only be "stallions" who work hard all their lives and will not be exposed to any substantive work. They are basically slaves.

Therefore, although Ren Zhong coveted the prices offered by others, he ultimately refused all human trade invitations without hesitation, cutting off an important way of making money.

The Fleet Academy of Sciences has also thought about using its own research and development capabilities to undertake some entrusted scientific research tasks. But the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is cruel. Regardless of any force, scientific research projects are a core area. If anyone dares to entrust scientific research projects to the Source Star Fleet at this time, it means that they have chosen a clear position in the dispute between the two counts of the Nanxiang Star Cluster.

Unless one day Zhongzhong breaks Liu An's power blockade, or the humans of Source Star show their unparalleled ability to turn stone into gold in the field of scientific research, it is impossible to receive orders in the short term.

To sum up, the current financial 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 a watch to hypnotize them on the Origin Star. The difference is that the treatment is more generous.

In addition, after arriving in the empire, humans on Source Star can still use their existing contribution points to purchase anti-aging medicines developed by the Royal Academy of Sciences and produced by the pharmaceutical factory commissioned by the Augustus family to extend their lifespan.

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

It is foreseeable that in the near future, the average life span of the Source Star Fleet will soon catch up with the average level of the Mechanical Empire.

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

Regarding the plight of the Commercial Transport Company, the Fleet Command had no choice but to completely renovate the annual ship held by the Commercial Transport Company and install more laser transmitters underneath it.

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

Exactly one thousand light energy capturing sails belonging to the Source Star have also begun to orbit the South Nine Star in a close orbit.

Many scientific research projects related to the planetary transformation plan are also progressing 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 to be difficult enough, but the reality was still shocking.

What he encountered was an all-round blockade on trade, economy, resources, and technology. It was really airtight, with no dead ends.

The fleet of four billion people obviously lived within the empire's territory and had the ability to sail across the stars, but they were forced to live a poor life of isolation from the outside world.

If nuclear fusion materials such as hydrogen isotopes can only be captured piecemeal from stellar winds near Nanjiu Star, the originally planned sixteen-year preparation period will have to be extended to at least twenty-five years.

The conventional reserve super batteries have long been exhausted, and the fleet must continue to consume resources to release high-energy lasers to drive away white flying ants, maintain scientific research progress, maintain and transform ships, maintain the ship's ecological environment, and produce daily necessities. There are expenses in all aspects, and they are not small. Now the fleet can only live frugally and dig at the ground to save money. It will take years and months to get what it wants.

In the throne room, Ren Zhong, who had just woken up, held another meeting.

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

Five years on, many things have gone according to plan.

The transformation of laser transmitters against white ants is halfway completed, and now 500 annual merchant ships have completed technical transformation and personnel training. These former merchant ships are now orbiting around Nanjiu C. One after another, high-energy lasers are scanning downward from high altitude, driving the white ants towards the two focal points. Due to the insufficient density of high-energy lasers, white ants have not yet been completely driven away. However, the Fleet Academy of Science conducted research on the living habits of a small number of white ants that were hunted and bred artificially, and felt that it was just right to maintain the current intensity. If the density of white ants in the two hot and cold poles of Nanjiu C is exceeded through continuous driving, the white ants may invade the star mantle in advance.

The battleship transformation is progressing faster.

The original size of nearly 4,000 armed warships has been reduced to 2,000.

Although a lot of equipment has been installed and the performance parameters of many core components have been changed, the internal space of the battleship has not expanded, but has become smaller.

All the original daily living spaces with leisure and entertainment functions were demolished and converted into functional modules related to military capabilities. Instead, the number of people on board each ship has increased to 60,000, 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 didn't think this was a problem.

The core reason why previous armed battleships had to reserve so much living space was that the voyage was too long. The battleship had to have a residential function, otherwise it would be psychologically unbearable for people to live in it generation after generation.

Times have changed, and today's armed forces no longer need to consider conventional quality of life. Soldiers should have a military attitude.

The military system has also been reorganized, and 120 million people have passed the selection process and become the new faces of the streamlined and strong military.

Some of the other 280 million grassroots soldiers were assigned to the thousand annual ships of the Yuanxing Commercial Transport, and some were still on the annual ships of the original fleet.

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

Some projects that scientific researchers did not dare to guarantee in the past can finally be given precise timetables, 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 issues are brought together and then fully demonstrated, the real core issue is reunited at one point, which is still the timely collection of nuclear fusion materials.

It is necessary to break the blockade between Viscount Nan Jiu and Uncle Nan Xiang and obtain more nuclear fusion materials.

At the meeting, someone suggested that Mr. Nanxiang was going too far. Since the other party ignored the rules and did the first grade of junior high school, he should do the fifteenth and quietly send a small spaceship to other sparsely populated stars in the Nanxiang star cluster. collect. Anyway, those are ownerless things, so we can’t even pick things up on the ground.

But the proposal was quickly rejected. It's not that imperial law doesn't allow it, but if you want to go to other stars, you need to use the warp subspace channel to cross the long distance. A large amount of energy is consumed each time to enter and exit the subspace channel. After calculation, there is really not much surplus left for a round trip. Running out to steal is really a time-consuming, labor-intensive but very inefficient thing. It is a drop in the bucket and of little help.

Ma Xiaoling suggested that we simply steal or rob them. There are ready-made gaseous planets in the Nanjiu Galaxy. Her bad idea was immediately suppressed. God knows how many pairs of eyes are staring at the Yuanxing Fleet now. Whether it is stealing or robbing, as long as Liu An catches it, he will definitely make a crazy fuss and become a stain on his responsibility.

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

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

Three months later, an armed transport convoy consisting of two thousand improved warships, led by Ren Zhong, the commander of the expedition, set off from Nanjiu C and entered the subspace passage.

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

At this point, the purpose of Ren Chong is obvious.

Leaving the exit of the warp subspace channel and continuing to walk outside, there is a strategic-level ultra-long-range stargate 0.12 light-years away.

This ultra-long-distance stargate is directly under the jurisdiction of officials sent by the royal family. It is a giant space station hundreds of times larger than the Lookout.

Liu An's main fiefdoms are also near the Star Gate Space Station, and they have the closest connection with the empire's center.

Further outside 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 is also the area with the highest density of space pirates.

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

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

The nearby Nanxiang Bo's private army certainly turned a blind eye to these pirates.

The powerful Imperial fleet that guards the giant space station also rarely interferes with space piracy.

The motivations of the two are completely different.

The reason why Nanxiang Earl's Mansion stood aside was that they had a deep connection with the pirates.

However, the imperial fleet is too lazy to interfere in the internal strife between these low-class people. This is the empire's strategy to raise fish. Anyway, no pirates would dare to challenge the majesty of the empire's regular army.

In the Earl of Nanxiang's Mansion, the person in charge of the secret service who was in contact with Southgate had just received the news from the informant 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 the star cluster through the royal viscount Wen Yuanbo.

The reward for this order was even rich enough to reverse his predicament, so he decided to take the risk and personally lead the team in an attempt to break through the dangerous pirate area and complete this large order.

The Secret Service Chief passed down the order through a secret channel.

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

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

In terms of rapid maneuverability, the Storm Pirates' strength surpassed that of Shattered Star Ring.

Even if they just set off from the base now, there is still a chance to intercept the Source Star Fleet before it reaches the Star Gate.