2669. The Emperor's Counterattack
Logically speaking, the powerful people of Core Worlds and Rebel Alliance should not be equated. Because in the final analysis, most people who rise up to resist do so to resist exploitation, oppression, and fight for freedom. And the Noble House aristocracy of Core Worlds is actually one of the exploiters.
Many times, when Galactic Empire brutally exploits and squeezes a planet, it is actually those Noble House nobles who ultimately carry it out.
For example, Ahsoka-Tano once experienced the uprising of the agricultural planet Lafa. The reason was that in order to plant high-energy crops on the planet, Galaxy Imperial Agriculture Department crazily squeezed the local labor force. At the same time, they were unwilling to provide chemical fertilizers, but allowed the high-energy crops to destructively consume the nutrients in the planet's land.
In this matter, it seems that the mastermind behind this is Imperial Agriculture Department, and the one who carried out the suppression is Imperial Stormtroopers. However, if you think about it more deeply, what will Imperial Agriculture Department do after getting these high-energy crops? Do they process it themselves? Obviously not. In the end, aren't these collected high-energy crops sold to processing companies, processed into high-energy military rations, and then sold to Imperial military through military orders?
And those processing companies, aren't they the companies subordinate to the Core Worlds powerful people?
But having said that, in fact, Rebel Alliance and the aristocracy are still involved together.
First of all, the ideological basis for the birth of the Rebel Alliance is liberalism, and the birth of liberalism is due to the democratic parliamentary system implemented by Galactic Republic on the one hand, and on the other hand, the aristocratic class of Core Worlds directly monopolizes almost all channels for advancement.
Therefore, if ordinary people want to be promoted and achieve a class leap, in addition to praying for a good birth in the next life, they can only rely on the aristocratic class, work under them, and then eat some scraps from their fingers.
Coupled with the cruel oppression of those companies, under such circumstances, everyone naturally fantasizes that one day their planet will be self-sufficient and will no longer be affected by those super capitals across the galaxy.
But at the same time, in reality, the common people are still dependent on the companies of the aristocratic class. There are still very few people who can really run smuggling independently.
Therefore, once the Core Worlds aristocracy wants to resist Galactic Empire's suppression of them, they will naturally coerce their employees to resist together.
At this time, the goals of both parties became consistent again.
Moreover, the civilians who stand up rebel against the Empire can only cause harm to the Empire by relying on the power of their bosses. In this interstellar age, if some civilians rise up to rebel, their strength may not even be able to match a Light Cruiser.
So in the final analysis, the main body of the Rebel Alliance is not the oppressed common people, but the Core Worlds Noble House aristocracy who want rebel against the Empire. The most we can say is that these Noble House aristocratic class are relatively more enlightened.
And what is the purpose of those Noble House nobles who rose up to resist? What they want is actually to establish a regime that can maximize their own interests - yes, to rebuild Galactic Republic.
Although the idea of rebuilding Galactic Republic is kept secret among the Rebel Alliance senior officials and must not be discussed, it is essentially the same.
Those who really stand at the top of power among the Rebel Alliance - Chandrila's Meng-Mothma, Alderaan's Bail Z-Organa, Corellia's Garm-Bail-Iblis, which one is not the top noble family?
After understanding the relationship between the Noble House nobles and Rebel Alliance, I have a more comprehensive understanding of the struggle between the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance.
On the surface, it was the desperate people who stood up to resist Galactic Empire. In fact, it was the suppressed Noble House nobles who took advantage of the rebellious sentiments of the people in their territories to trigger organized riots and confront Galactic Empire.
Even if people like Meng-Mothma, Bail-Organa sincerely want to benefit the galaxy and save the majority of the people in the galaxy from dire straits, their own class position makes it impossible for them to jump out of this class to deal with the problem.
At the same time, although they have high moral character and far-sightedness, there is no guarantee that others in the Rebel Alliance will be the same. The fruits of the uprising will eventually fall into the hands of the Noble House nobles, and then they will eventually lose the support of the people and the foundation of their existence.
In the end, the tragic ending of the Rebel Alliance and New Republic in the original plot is not difficult to understand - this is the inevitable outcome of history.
Bail-Organa made a strong statement in the parliament, demanding that Imperial Intelligence Bureau immediately release Meng-Mothma and other members, otherwise they will take more violent resistance measures. Including strikes, demonstrations and other means, as well as the impeachment agenda within the parliament.
He gathered thousands of congressmen and jointly signed a letter, requesting the establishment of an investigation team to re-examine recent events and carefully consider the final handling method based on factual evidence.
And now, Imperial Intelligence Bureau directly arrested Meng-Mothma and others based on some indirect inferences. This is a blatant trampling on Imperial law!
However, Bail-Organa's resistance did not have any effect.
The Imperial Intelligence Bureau action headed by Isanne-Isard became more and more unscrupulous. On the third day after the arrest of Meng-Mothma, Corellia member Garm-Bail-Iblis was attacked by the Imperial Intelligence Bureau agents near his residence. During the exchange of fire between the two sides, Senator Iblis's daughter died accidentally.
At that time, she was taking shelter in her Speeder. However, during the exchange of fire between the two sides, a rocket accidentally hit the car.
Afterwards, Garm-Bail-Iblis, who fell into despair, gave up resistance and was arrested by the Imperial Intelligence Bureau agents.
Just when things were about to get out of hand, Emperor Palpatine finally appeared. He participated in the meeting of Imperial Senate via remote communication. He told everyone that the key to this incident was the destruction of the Thirteenth Imperial Army, which was such an extremely bad thing.
Because the fleet that destroyed Thirteenth Imperial Army is the Empire's own, the army is the Empire's own, the officials are the Empire's own, the people are also the Empire's own, and the funds are still the Empire's own!
It is equivalent to this being a force within the Galactic Empire, which eventually led to the capture of the Thirteenth Army's capital and the capture of Governor Bilur.
If Thirteenth Army can be destroyed like this, what about the Twelfth Army? What about the Tenth Army? What's more, where are the five legions of Core Worlds? Is it true that everyone in these legions is in danger of being stabbed in the back by one of their own? Especially since the Empire is currently in a brutal war with Kingdom of Dawn, such betrayal is even more unacceptable.
Therefore, this matter must be dealt with seriously!
Meng-Senator Mothma, Garm-Bail-Senator Iblis, although there is no direct evidence of their collusion with the Rebel Alliance, there is still indirect evidence and reasonable inferences. Therefore, their suspicions cannot be eliminated and must be interrogated and investigated.
Afterwards, Palpatine also promised that this incident would never involve any family or any planet, and would only target individuals. The political structure of the Galactic Empire will not change now or in the future. It is definitely a political system with Imperial Senate as its core. He will also gradually decentralize power to ensure fairness and justice in the Empire politics.
Palpatine's speech has very obvious results.
There is an illusion here that the support rate of Palpatine is very low... but it is not the case. Emperor Palpatine, his support rate among Imperial politics is actually very high!
Why?
Because as mentioned before, in the political environment of the Galactic Empire, the people and parliamentarians are completely separated. Galactic Empire's support rate for the emperor will not consider the opinions of ordinary civilians at all. The only reference is the opinions of officials at all levels and those Imperial Senate.
During the Galactic Republic period, Palpatine gradually grew up from a member of Naboo. After working at the bottom for twenty years, he became the speaker as the hero who solved the Naboo crisis. After becoming the Speaker, he overcame all the opposition to rebuild Republic army, and then led Galactic Republic to defeat Confederacy of Independent Systems through hardships.
Even Dawn Star Planet, the most powerful among Confederacy of Independent Systems, once surrendered and became part of the Empire.
Then, after Palpatine became Emperor of the Empire, the powerful rule he implemented was actually in the interests of those Noble House nobles in many cases. Some nobles actually very much recognized the power of the Empire. Because only in this way can they get more privileges.
Therefore, as Isanne-Isard said, although Palpatine's ultimate goal is to reduce the power of the Core Worlds nobles, he adopts the method of boiling the frog in warm water, and packages many of his actions under the powerful the Empire administrative system and military system, so there are still a considerable number of nobles who support him.
And this ratio is actually not low.
This time, Palpatine's explanation made many people begin to think that he was really only targeting individuals and not the family. Therefore, many people began to retreat. After all, unless they were really forced, the Noble House nobles were not willing to confront Galactic Empire who had a powerful fleet.
Then, Palpatine once again confirmed the arrest warrants for Meng-Mothma, Garm-Bail-Iblis, and more than thirty other congressmen involved in the destruction of the Thirteenth Army.
They will be imprisoned in a space station outside Imperial Center, and Director of Imperial Intelligence Bureau Isanne-Isard will be personally in charge, and they will be interrogated strictly "without losing etiquette". At the same time, Imperial Intelligence Bureau will also conduct limited declassification of the investigation results in the parliament - what kind of limited law? Naturally, it was only declassified to those congressmen who were qualified to have access to Core Worlds affairs.
At the end of the meeting, Palpatine said that he was still in the Empire Northern Territory, and went to the battlefield to guard the border for the Empire. I left briefly before because I was injured on the battlefield. So at this moment of life and death for the Empire, I hope that everyone at Imperial Senate will work together to fight against foreign enemies.
This speech received another wave of support.
But these far-sighted congressmen Bail-Organa know that Palpatine is lying. No matter how extravagant his words are, he cannot deny that it is precisely because of their wrong policies and perverse practices that led to their inevitable decline.
In order to save Galactic Empire in the crisis, we must end Palpatine's rule and return to a democratic republic. Then negotiate a peace with Kingdom of Dawn to temporarily end the war, then build moral governance internally, repair the wounds of the war, and rebuild the collapsed economic system. After that, slowly discuss the future of both parties with Kingdom of Dawn through diplomatic means.
However, Palpatine not only actively provoked the war, but also continued to expand the scale of the war and exploited wildly by exploiting the entire lake, causing the major planets it belonged to to be alienated and the people living in dire straits. At the same time, Palpatine also allowed corruption to flourish within the Empire, bureaucracy became rampant, and state-owned assets were lost due to corruption and misappropriation.
In other words, Palpatine does not deal with the internal shortcomings of the Empire at all, but blindly passes the contradictions to the outside world. Whether it is passed on to Kingdom of Dawn or to the people of Outer Rim and Mid Rim Territories, this is a wrong way to evade responsibility and respond to violence with violence.
But all this cannot be understood by more people. There are too many people who are intoxicated by the so-called privileges given to them by Palpatine and cannot extricate themselves. They are keen on using their power for personal gain and cheating, and do not care at all about the future of the Empire.
Such an environment makes people despair.
After the final failure of this protest, Bail-Organa was also closely monitored by the Imperial Intelligence Bureau. Even his application to return to Alderaan for recuperation was rejected. Intelligence Bureau asked him not to leave Imperial Center.
And at this time, Palpatine's statement in the parliament did not make Imperial Intelligence Bureau's actions restrained. Isanne-Isard indeed no longer touches those congressmen from Core Worlds, but her massive manhunt in Imperial Center shows no sign of abating.
A large number of people are still arrested every day, and among Imperial Plaza, a large number of political prisoners are still publicly shot every day.
At this moment, a Lambda-class shuttlecraft approached the space station where Meng-Mothma and others were imprisoned.
This space station is protected by the battleships directly under the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, and the security system is very strict.
The security personnel of the defense fleet first sent IFF code, but the feedback showed that the IFF code of this shuttle was indeed Imperial Navy, but it had expired.
The security personnel asked the shuttle to immediately update IFF code and then re-verify.
At this moment, the shuttle suddenly went crazy! It suddenly accelerated and rushed directly towards the space station!
The surrounding the Empire battleships reacted immediately, and the point defense laser cannons opened fire immediately! However, at such a close distance, all the point defense lasers failed!
The shuttle seemed to have known the direction of the defensive laser's fire a long time ago and avoided it in advance!