Oxygen Deprivation

Don't get the wrong idea. Gu Hang wasn't so crazed as to think that having more than four hundred people and four armored vehicles meant he could seize Revival City by force.

That wasn't realistic.

Revival City was the Alliance's capital, a place with a population of 130,000 permanent residents and refugees numbering more than ten times that, all of them making their living off the city. It also directly or indirectly controlled hundreds, even thousands, of survivor settlements of various sizes in the surrounding area.

Its conventional military forces included tens of thousands of fully armed soldiers, a considerable number of artillery pieces, and locally produced tanks and propeller planes. If necessary, they could even conscript far more mercenaries than they had regular troops.

The disparity in military strength was simply too great.

However, Gu Hang didn't necessarily have to rely on military force to take Revival City.

At least, not on ground forces.

If the four hundred people under his command went looking for trouble in Revival City, it would indeed be like an egg smashing against a rock. But the Quintet was floating up in orbit, its starship macro-cannons aimed at Revival City. The power of an orbital bombardment was enough to wipe the city off the surface of the planet in a single day.

That was the greatest deterrent of all.

The other approach was a political one, beginning with legitimacy.

After all, Gu Hang was the Planetary Governor, while the Alliance government was theoretically the only legitimate regime on Nuxiao Planet. That made him the Alliance's natural supreme leader. Before him, every Planetary Governor to arrive on this planet had landed in Revival City, inherited the Alliance government, and then exercised the powers of a governor.

In fact, that was what Gu Hang had done at first, too.

When he'd first obtained the system and hoped to secure territory of his own, he'd thought he'd gotten a dream start. After landing, the entire planet would be his territory. Wouldn't that max out the system's fixed income? And with the system at his back, whatever trouble he ran into on the planet would be easy to handle. After farming for a couple of years, how could he possibly fail to pay his taxes?

Reality had quickly slapped him in the face.

After he landed, he'd received a warm welcome, but the system hadn't so much as stirred. It refused to recognize the ownership of Revival City by a leader who was only nominally in charge, let alone the entire planet.

So the dignified Governor Gu had gone off to make it on his own.

He'd given it some thought, too.

The first thing was that if the system didn't recognize his territory, then without territory, he couldn't activate its abilities or obtain any income through Grace. If the system couldn't be put to use, then of course he had to go find a way to make it useful. Otherwise, what was the point of having a cheat?

The second thing was that the system's refusal to recognize his territory meant there were serious problems within Revival City. It would be difficult for him to gain real power through political maneuvering. Gu Hang didn't think a transmigrator like himself, who'd never studied the art of scheming, had what it took to outmaneuver those local power brokers.

Even having the Quintet in orbit wouldn't help. Orbital bombardment was a last resort. Did he really think he could flatten Revival City? That would be mutual destruction. Unless everything was about to go to hell and he needed to take others down with him, he wouldn't use it. At best, it was a deterrent.

Third, based on the first two points, he more or less understood the core reason the previous governors had been unable to solve Nuxiao Planet's problems. Aside from the planet's harsh environment, countless dangers, and low productivity, another reason was probably that they'd never managed to gain complete, absolute control of the planet.

The conditions were already bad enough. Add infighting on top of that, and it was only natural that the planet never developed and couldn't pay its taxes to the Empire.

Gu Hang couldn't follow the same old path. There was little hope of success that way.

It was precisely because he'd considered the problem from so many angles that he'd set out to build something of his own.

But that didn't mean he was giving up on Revival City.

It was the largest settlement in the region, with abundant manpower, a developed light industry, and a thriving center for commerce and trade.

Gu Hang still had to take it, and he couldn't afford to wait too long. If he relied on slow, steady growth on his own, he'd still fail to pay the taxes two years from now and be executed.

He already had some ideas about what to do.

"Connect me to Revival City," Gu Hang called out.

"Yes, sir!" Zhang Chao replied loudly, then went to work on the radio.

He was the only person who'd come with Gu Hang from the family. He was Gu Hang's attendant, a fairly sharp young man.

Before long, the connection came through. A weary-sounding, elderly voice emerged from the radio speaker. "Greetings, Governor. This is Revival City. I'm Mirian Hodgson."

Gu Hang had met the old man who called himself Mirian Hodgson once before, when he'd first landed on this planet.

The dignified old man was the Alliance Council Speaker. While there was no Planetary Governor in office, he and the Alliance Council he led were the ones who actually held power in Revival City. After a new governor took office, he was supposed to step back and serve as the governor's adviser.

But it was clear that Gu Hang, a governor who didn't play by the rules, had caught Hodgson completely off guard.

It was exhausting.

Facing Hodgson, Gu Hang wasn't going to be as polite as he'd been with Yelicia. Nor was he interested in appealing to the old man's feelings or reasoning with him. Instead, he made his demands in a tone of command.

"I need a hundred tons of food, ten thousand sets of textile goods and clothing, as well as various industrial consumer goods. I'll send you a list. Have everything delivered to my camp within a week."

After he finished speaking, the other end remained silent for a long while.

Gu Hang's brow furrowed. "Answer me!"

He was clearly displeased.

A young voice stammered from the other end. "G-Governor... Council Speaker... he... he..."

"What happened to him?"

"The Council Speaker fainted!"

"Uh..."

Gu Hang's first reaction was disbelief.

How could someone faint that easily? All he'd asked for was a tiny little bit of supplies.

But judging by the commotion over the radio, it sounded like it might be true.

His second reaction was to feel a little guilty.

Had he gone too far? Maybe he shouldn't have put so much pressure on the old man.

Then his third reaction was, Why the hell should I feel guilty? He brought this on himself.

He'd done it on purpose. Hodgson fainting from the shock had been an accident, but it was no big deal.

Gu Hang cleared his throat and continued, "In any case, you all heard my demands. This is a Governor's order. The supplies must not fall short, and there must be no delay. That's all."

Several dozen minutes later, in the council chamber of Revival City's inner city.

The silver-haired old man wore an oxygen mask and gasped for air.

After waking up, Hodgson had summoned the Alliance Council and made the Governor's demands known to every council member.

The crowd was furious. The councilors below argued among themselves, all at once.

Still wearing his oxygen mask, Hodgson felt his head throb even worse. His vision kept going dark.

He thought bitterly that at this rate, he really wouldn't live much longer.

He had to pound on the table with all his strength for several minutes before the room slowly quieted down.

He drew a deep breath of oxygen, then slowly removed his mask and said, "If we keep arguing like this, we won't reach a decision. Let's vote. I want to see how many of you have the guts to disobey the Governor's orders with an Imperial cruiser's orbital cannons pointed at us."