Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao couldn’t have agreed more on what Li Linghai said.

Even the look that was full of hope and enthusiasm was no stranger to him. He had seen it countless times on the faces of the soldiers in the federation.

In a country that was at war all the time or faced with serious military pressure, it was very easy for the military to be condensed into a behemothic beast and a destructible interest group in the first place.

At the very least, it was the case in the Star Glory Federation.

The military of the federation boasted a very high power and had its own mines, purification plants, magical equipment factories, and war-related enterprises. It even had one-third of seats in the parliament of the federation.

The military held a third of the seats, the Cultivation sects held another third, and the ordinary people held the last third. It was the basic balance of power in the federal parliament.

It was needless to say that the Star Glory Federation worshipped valiance, and the soldiers enjoyed a very high social position. The “Disabled Servicemen Association” had extended its tentacles to every corner of society, maintaining the interests of the soldiers as much as possible. Of course, as a result of the virtuous cycle, the adolescents were encouraged to join the army to defend the federation and the civilization.

At the very least, during the hundred years from Li Yao’s birth to the birth of the New Federation and the defeat of the Black Wind Fleet, the military of the federation, as a gigantic beast, did make great contributions and sacrifices for the peace, unity of the federation, and the happiness of the people. It certainly had its positive value.

However, if the gigantic beast went out of control, it might still cause dire consequences. In the early years of the Star Glory Federation, there was already the case where the soldiers meddled in politics, overthrew the regime, and established a “junta”, forcing all the Cultivators in the world to join the army that was known as “Red Dragon Army”. It was definitely a gory lesson.

Also, just a hundred years ago, Lu Zui, the director of the Secret Sword Bureau, conspired with “Iron Commander” Zhou Hengdao, an important leader of the military, and tried to hijack the entire country.

As the ancient people put it, “when you have the sharpest weapon, you will inevitably want to kill someone”. When the soldiers grabbed chainswords and storm bolters, put on their crystal suits and stepped on starships, and surrounded by their comrades who were going to fight through life and death with them, they would easily congregate into an iron torrent that could sweep across the sea of stars within a breath.

For the soldiers who were in the middle of the iron torrent, it was only natural that surging ambitions were ignited and the greatest responsibility for the country, the people, and the civilization of mankind dawned on them. They would crave to make accomplishments and realize their personal value while they saved the country.

Therefore, it couldn’t be more normal that the soldiers of the Imperium yearned to stop the current disunity where they were controlled by different nobles and to establish a united, strong, and “glorious” army!

Perhaps the high-level commanders of the various space fleets and elite crystal suit legions on the army of the Imperium today were from the nobles in order to realize the highest control over the army.

However, the middle- and low-level officers, especially the bottom-level officers who had to fight hard in the frontline, were not necessarily from the noble families, were they?

As Li Linghai said just now, the high-level Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium were living longer and longer lives today.

If the noble commander of a fleet did not move his place at all for two hundred years but seemed healthy and comfortable enough to live for another two hundred years, while Li Yao was a bottom-level officer who fought through life and death in the frontline under his command, even Li Yao would certainly rise up!

“Right now, the wise people within the Imperium, including the hopeless bottom-level Immortal Cultivators, the Sector Masters, and mine owners who have been shorn in the resource worlds at the edge of the Imperium, the businessmen who wander in the sea of stars looking for business opportunities but cannot enter the trades monopolized by the nobles, and the young officers who have dreams and visions, hoping to make accomplishments and save the country, all hate the guts of the noble families characterized by the four Kurfürst families!”

With her hands behind her back, Li Linghai said casually, while the brilliance that could pierce through the universe darted out of her eyes, “From top to bottom, everybody can see the sharpest contradictions, everybody is holding back their discontentment, and everybody is craving for a world-changing reform to completely break the internally corrupted old system and establish a great and glorious new Imperium!

“You must be aware of the great strategic counterattack that the Imperium launched at the Covenant Alliance in the recent ten years, don’t you? It is the attack of the largest scale that the Imperium has waged on the Covenant Alliance in the past hundred years. The strength of the Imperium has all been dedicated to the war.”

Li Yao nodded his head heavily.

It was exactly thanks to the great strategic counterattack that the Imperium was too occupied to investigate the Black Wind Fleet’s real situation or to send a new expedition army to the Imperium, and the federation was indirectly saved by it. How could Li Yao not know it?

“In fact, the noble families led by the four Kurfürst were not in favor of such a radical plan of strategic counterattack, as they had always been in the past five hundred years. They were more inclined to defense in strategic decisions. Sometimes, they even stayed in the fortresses and simply took the hit without doing anything.”

Narrowing her eyes, Li Linghai said coldly, “In many cases, it was not a military issue but a political one. The military strategies that were too radical had the risk of losing the entire game, which would seriously jeopardize the interests of the noble families.

“Clearing the border areas and staying back at the forts, however, could ensure the safety of their own territories and interests.

“What about the Sectors that were ravaged at the borderland? They were not the nobles’ territory after all, and the nobles could not care less about it. In the meantime, they could diminish the power of the recent risers by the hands of the Covenant Alliance in case new guys came to divide the cake. Why would they make any other choice?

“A hundred years ago, at the borderland of the Imperium, a new armed force named ‘Black Wind Fleet’ once appeared. It somehow survived the arduous wars and grew stronger and bigger as it fought on.

“People of the Black Wind Fleet were best known for their disobedience, brutality, and decisiveness, and they were likely to become the new dividers of the cake. But in the end, they collapsed. Even their mother world fell to the hands of the Covenant Alliance, which, of course, has been recovered right now.

“The collapse of the Black Wind Fleet was naturally partly because the Covenant Alliance attacked too vehemently, and they made mistakes in commanding. But was it also partly because the four Kurfürst families turned a blind eye to them and even tried to use the Covenant Alliance to eliminate the competitor?

“After all, having been born in the Li family, I have seen too many methods about how the Li family dealt with competitors in the past thousand years.

“However, a thousand years after the Imperium’s establishment, the internal contradictions of the country have escalated to such a point that even the four Kurfürst families cannot pretend that they do not see it anymore.

“An external war is always the best approach to transfer the internal contradictions.

“If a large-scale external war is not launched to transfer the resources, population, fury, and ambitions of the various parties in contradiction, a volcano would certainly erupt within the Imperium and turn the whole world upside down!

“That is exactly the real reason why the noble families have changed their norm and launched the largest strategic counterattack in the past five hundred years together with the new warlords at the peripheral worlds, the young officers at the fleets and legions, and the low-level Immortal Cultivators who crave for accomplishments!”

The queen’s detailed introduction made Li Yao greatly enlightened. He had a deeper understanding of the political ecology and the balance of forces in the Imperium of True Human Beings right now.

“The idea at the beginning was good.”

Observing the look on Li Yao’s face, Li Linghai went on calmly, “The Sectors, world fragments, and resource planets that are recovered in the strategic counterattack could be distributed to the smaller nobles, the governors of remote worlds, the bottom-level officers who rose in the recent hundreds of years, and all the other experts who did not earn enough in the first five hundred years. Even the royal family can be given one or two worlds to expand the territory that is directly under the emperor’s lead.

“In such a way, the contradictions between each other can be resolved, and a new common understanding of interests can be reached.

“However…

“Is it because the four Kurfürst families are scared that the new interest groups will continue to expand after getting the new territory and eventually threaten their reign, and thereby take action in case they are attacked, or is it simply because they can’t change their habits?

“All in all, the four Kurfürst encouraged the young officers and small sects under their commands, as well as the warlords and experts in the remote worlds, to join the strategic counterattack, promising that they would all benefit from it.

“But the Covenant Alliance was certainly not a pushover. In the arduous war, the young bottom-level officers, the small sects, and the new warlords in remote worlds paid the most sacrifices and suffered most losses to recover the lost lands.

“However, now that the Imperium has recovered all the territories lost in the past thousand years and driven the Covenant Alliance back to their barren nest a thousand years ago, and the defense line is stabilized again, the aristocrats and the noble families all begin to regret about how the cake should be divided.

“Hehe. When the dozens of worlds were still heavily guarded by the Covenant Alliance, it was easy for them to make the decision to give the worlds away.

“However, now that the worlds are reembraced by the Imperium and ready to be tasted like cheery and litchi that have been washed, how can the ill-natured noble families bear to deliver them to somebody else’s mouth?

“Not only are they willing to watch other people carve up the dozens of worlds ravenously, they even think that they are smart enough to find an ‘opportunity’ in it.

“It must be noted that in the gory strategic counterattack, the smaller sects, the relatively independent space fleets, and the Sector Masters of the remote worlds all suffered heavy casualties. They are exhausted and running out of supplies, and they are far away from their own camp too, in an environment that they are not familiar with. Many of the war assets have to be supplied by the four Kurfürst families. So, their necks are already grabbed by the big nobles.

“Isn’t it the best opportunity to swallow all of them?

“Not only will it be unnecessary to give the dozens of newly-earned worlds to anybody else, but even the territory of the small nobles and new warlords can also be swallowed too, to ensure their reigning status in the Imperium. For the four Kurfürst families, isn’t it a stone that kills two birds?

“It is exactly what is on the mind of the swine.”