40

The Imperium's exploitation of planets could be described as draining the pond to catch all the fish, because for the Imperium, resources are never enough.

While the Imperium ostensibly has millions of worlds, and although not every world represents a planet, it still amounts to at least hundreds of thousands of planets.

(Imperial space stations are also counted as Imperial Worlds)

However, such a vast number, when scattered across the entire galaxy, becomes as sparse as a large turd thrown into the ocean.

It's not that it has no effect, but it's basically unnoticeable.

Moreover, because these worlds are scattered throughout the galaxy, the Departmento Munitorum finds it difficult to ensure that the taxes and resources they collect can be promptly allocated to where they are most needed.

After all, the Imperium's territory, measured in tens of thousands of light-years, makes logistics a despair-inducing task.

Warp drives are the only technology capable of transporting materials across sectors, but they are not safe.

The dangers of Warp navigation often cause the precious Tithes collected over centuries from an entire sector to vanish into thin air.

Therefore, for the Imperium, they often have to transport valuable Tithes in a safer way, which is for the Imperial Merchant Fleet to slowly crawl through realspace.

Although traveling through realspace is indeed very safe, with no major troubles other than pirate attacks, it usually takes decades or even centuries to transport materials to their destination.

This speed is acceptable for transporting materials within a sector, but for the entire Imperium, it is unimaginably slow.

After all, if Guilliman were to support Holy Terra from Macragge at this speed, he would have set off during the Great Heresy, and the Age of Apostasy would be over by the time he arrived.

Precisely because of this, for the Imperium, control zones that can guarantee a stable output of resources undoubtedly need to be squeezed to the maximum extent.

This has led to a top-down tendency within the Imperium to unsustainably drain resources, without considering more reasonable development methods that would ease the burden on the Imperium's citizens.

After all, being able to drain a star system within a thousand years and squeeze out enough resources to support the wars in surrounding star sectors is the most practical and necessary thing for the Imperium.

As for extracting fewer resources, allowing it to operate for another thousand years, or sustainably produce resources for ten thousand years, it is not practical for the Imperium.

Although it sounds nice, how can you guarantee that the front lines won't collapse if you reduce the resources by that little bit? How can you guarantee that the small amount of Tithes you save won't lead to the fall of dozens of Imperial Worlds?

Therefore, even if the Departmento Munitorum knows that they can obtain more by extracting resources in a more reasonable way, they still have to squeeze the Imperium's worlds to the extreme, so that they can provide resources for the Imperium's survival.

This undoubtedly brings profound suffering to the Imperium's citizens, but it is also a necessary sacrifice.

And ironically, it is precisely because of more suffering that the Imperium's citizens more devoutly believe in the Adeptus Ministorum and worship the Emperor.

So this is why those Planetary Governors who seem like utter trash from the perspective of the 30th millennium are, in the eyes of the Departmento Munitorum, model governors.

You can efficiently collect taxes for the Imperium, and the citizens under your rule are particularly devout. Some of those with good physical qualities can even be conscripted into the Astra Militarum or even the Astartes. If you're not a model governor, who is?

As for the fact that the average lifespan of the Imperium's citizens is less than forty years, that the vast majority of people have no access to education and are destined to die from overwork, what does that have to do with you?

You are a Planetary Governor, and only those Imperial citizens in the middle or upper levels of a Hive City are considered people. Even so, they are still just a burden to the Imperium.

Even among the Imperial citizens who can live in the upper Hives, if they cannot become members of the Astra Militarum or other Imperial organizations, then the vast majority of them are still just a burden to the Imperium.

This includes the so-called planetary nobles, and even the Planetary Governor himself.

Chen Xi certainly doesn't intend to become such a trash governor, nor does he intend to become a so-called 'burden of the Emperor'.

"If we want to avoid becoming a 'burden of the Emperor,' we must at least develop this planet. At the very least, the PDF must be able to be transformed into the Astra Militarum." At a gathering after leaving the Warhammer world, Gutierrez expressed his opinion: "The combat effectiveness of the PDF on this planet is currently worrying. The training level is passable, but the weapons, equipment, combat will, and combat experience are really not up to par."

At this time, the four were still in Gutierrez's shop. After opening a bottle of wine, they sat together, discussing plans for future development.

"Rostov II's financial situation is very average. Currently, it is almost impossible to update the PDF's military equipment." Chen Xi placed the financial report compiled by Ochumelov on the table. The numbers on it were not optimistic.

The four present were obviously aware of this, and did not waste any more words on this topic. Chen Xi and Gutierrez simply turned their attention to Mai Mai and Twilight.

During the previous division of labor, in addition to going to the sub-sector capital to pull strings, the two of them were also responsible for conducting a general survey of the entire sub-sector, to at least find out how many planets there were in this sub-sector, and what types of planets they were.

And most importantly, whether there were any resources on these planets that could be turned into Throne Gelt.

"According to the scans from the shipboard augury arrays, there are thirteen suns in this sub-sector, with distances between them ranging from 3-5 light-years, making it a relatively dense area of celestial bodies." Mai Mai took out a record copied on blessed parchment, which Chen Xi could tell was written by a Servo-skull or an automated scribe Servitor: "Each sun has at least 3-5 planets around it. Some star systems have more than a dozen planets, while others have only one sun. Overall, all the suns are unremarkable, with nothing special.

There are no other Imperial Worlds in the entire sub-sector besides Rostov II. This planet is the only one that has been developed.

Excluding our planet, there are 33 planets in the entire sub-sector. Three are classified as death worlds due to excessively harsh environments, six are barren worlds with atmospheres suitable for immigration, seven have abundant mineral deposits suitable for mining, eight are just ordinary rock planets, and nine are gas giants."

Hearing these numbers, Chen Xi felt his face turn green: "Three, six, seven, eight, nine, thirteen, is this damn place so blessed by the gods?"

'Blessed by the gods' was of course sarcastic, because three and seven are Nurgle's sacred numbers, six is Slaanesh's sacred number, eight is Khorne's sacred number, and nine is Tzeentch's sacred number.

As for thirteen, although it is rumored to be the Emperor's sacred number, the Emperor actually has no sacred number, but from some unknown time, this number has indeed been associated with the Emperor.