350. Battle of Naboo (4)
A month has passed since Trade Federation sent troops to blockade of Naboo.
During this month, the entire galaxy showed a strange calm. Almost all relevant forces are meeting, meeting, meeting.
The Naboo royal family has held many meetings, but they are still at a loss. Trade Federation is too powerful. Even if there are only 60 cargo ships, tens of thousands of Vulture droid fighters carried on them are enough to destroy any interstellar fleet.
Galactic Senate is also constantly holding meetings and discussions. However, under the intentional guidance of Palpatine, the direction of the discussion has changed from whether to let Trade Federation withdraw its troops to whether Trade Federation's invasion is legal.
Speaker Phineas-Valorum was naturally aware of this change, but when he discussed it with Palpatine, Palpatine just told him worriedly that this was the only way now, and it could be said to be a curveball to save the country.
Because it is very difficult to directly interfere with Trade Federation's behavior given Galactic Senate's current influence, the only way is to legally put Trade Federation at a disadvantage. Only in this way can we forcibly restore the ideas of some centrist members.
Phineas-Valorum also understands that because the tax bill on Outer Rim Territories and a series of recent disputes have made Outer Rim Territories a victim, under such circumstances, those Outer Rim MPs will no longer be able to support Galactic Republic. The most typical representative is Rim Faction, headed by Councilor On-Fry-Ta.
Therefore, he had to accept Palpatine's plan, and now that he was alone, no one else was willing to help him except Palpatine.
Of course, Trade Federation's blockade fleet, Newt Gunray and the others are also holding meetings every day... well, holding celebration meetings.
Xiao Guanghua has given up on treatment. He hangs out with Newt Gunray and the others every day, and gets extremely drunk. If the last level of law in the military is not still effective, he will definitely take a few Tusken dancers to the accommodation area and fuck them until they are black.
But for Naboo, this month was fatal.
The total population of Naboo is as high as 4.5 billion, of which about 1.7 billion are humans, and the rest are Gungan who live underwater. Like other planets in the galaxy, Naboo is also a planet that was forcibly incorporated into the Galactic Republic system with relatively backward technology and civilization.
In other words, their original productivity and technology were not enough to feed 4.5 billion mouths, but after joining Galactic Republic, developed trade allowed them to solve this problem through large-scale imports. In other words, it is precisely because of developed trade that their population will accumulate and expand.
Especially after Naboo discovered the abundant plasma mine, Naboo's main revenue came from foreign trade and plasma mine business. Moreover, because of the behavior of the former king Als-Veruna who led the wolf into the house and signed an unequal treaty with Trade Federation, Naboo also had to invest a lot of manpower and material resources into the industry of mining plasma mines.
So after a month, the material reserves of such a mining and trading planet reached its limit.
Although their performance was actually better than that of Malastare who only lasted three days, famine also began to spread after the reserves of supplies were exhausted.
In fact, if a rationing system was adopted, they could at least sustain it for more than three months. But for a planet that has been peaceful for thousands of years after being incorporated into Galactic Republic, what is a rationing system? What is a wartime mechanism? Have no idea at all!
Naboo, it is no longer possible. The streets of the capital Theed City were dead silent. Not a single pedestrian was walking on the street. The once bustling Central Avenue was empty. The garbage scattered on the road was flying in the wind but no one was cleaning it.
This is the case in the capital, but the situation in other cities is even more serious. People have even begun to starve to death in some places.
"Galactic Republic still has no response, I must respond!" The supreme ruler of Naboo, Queen Amidala, who is only 14 years old, said in the King's Hall said categorically, "I will go to Coruscant in person, meet with Speaker Phineas-Valorum, and urge him to let Trade Federation withdraw his troops!"
Executive Governor Theo Bible quickly stopped him, "Your Majesty Queen, you can't do it now! Trade Federation's fleet is in the outer orbit of Naboo. If you leave Naboo, you will either be shot down by them or captured by them. There is no third possibility!"
"If you ask me, we should immediately recruit an army and fight Trade Federation to the death!" Security Commander Kuash-Panaka said fiercely, waving his fist.
"Even if we arm an army, can we defeat Trade Federation? No! And this will only anger them and make them do more cruel things to our people!" Bibull said loudly.
"We can't sit still and wait for death!" Queen Amidala said.
"With all due respect, Your Majesty Queen, until Galactic Republic intervenes, we can only sit back and wait for death..." Bibull sighed.
Queen stared at Bibull for a long time, stood up silently, and returned to the bedroom.
Coruscant, Galactic Senate Building, Chancellor's Office.
"It's been a month, and the parliament is still quarreling over this matter... bastard!" Phineas-Valorum punched the desk.
He rarely loses his temper like this, especially in front of outsiders. But the current situation really made him desperate and angry.
"Most of the members have been bribed, especially the members of Outer Rim Territories. They only focus on the immediate interests, but cannot see the long-term. Now Outer Rim Territories almost always follow the lead of Trade Federation. Under their obstruction, we cannot pass any motion." Naboo Senator Sheev-Palpatine said with a bow.
"In this case, my suggestion is to bypass the motion on whether to interfere with the Trade Federation blockade and first hold a vote on whether Trade Federation's behavior is legal. Such a motion will not irritate those too much Outer Rim Territories Congressman, once we pass the motion and determine that Trade Federation's behavior is illegal, then the next thing will be a matter of course." Palpatine had a cold smile on his face, but he was not noticed.
Phineas-Valorum waved his hand, "You go down first, I still need to think about this matter."
"Please hurry up, His Excellency the Chancellor. On my planet, people are starving." After Palpatine finished speaking, he bowed again and exited the office.
After watching Palpatine leave, Phineas-Valorum thought for a long time in the empty office. Finally, he got through a communication, "Master Windu, I need your help."