Chapter 1007, Don't Block the Way

Chapter 1007, Don't Block the Way
Angel had a smile on her face when she left the Cafiora family.

They surrendered.

Of course, this is the only right thing to do. After all, whether the other party is genuinely yielding or preparing to feign compliance while secretly resisting, their current choice is to agree.

Unless they're looking for death.

But that probability is too low.

As for what they will choose next... Angel isn't as indifferent as she claims.

After all, if the Cafiora family is not truly obedient, then there will be no shortage of trouble later on, and it will all be trouble for her, the special-grade deacon.

Although she believed that she would inevitably emerge victorious in the subsequent battle of wits. After all, she was experienced in this kind of 'purge' work and had the backing of a powerful alliance, making victory a certainty.

However, it will take a lot of time, which will seriously slow down her efficiency.

She's not just dealing with the native families of Indonia, but with the entire Holy Terra, and thousands of hives.

Of course, not every one of these nests is owned by a powerful local aristocratic family. Nor does every one of them require her intervention.

There are dozens of "Special Deacons" or "Senior Deacons" like her, who are specifically responsible for dismantling the local elites on Holy Terra. In this matter, their levels of authority are actually quite similar, and their job duties are also the same.

However, besides being colleagues who need to cooperate and share intelligence, it is undeniable that they also have strong competition among themselves.

After all, only two or three people might be promoted to the position of Vice Minister of the Imperial Central Ministry of Justice this time, making the competition fierce.

Furthermore, Angel also knew that this promotion was not simply about who used ruthless methods, who did things faster, or who did more.

What they were vying for was the position of 'Vice Minister,' a high-ranking official in the empire. If the competition were merely about who was faster or had more, it would be nothing more than a matter of having the best and fastest knife.

To get promoted, you need to have enough political acumen and be able to do your job well.

Although one may have a sharp knife in hand, one cannot actually cause bloodshed wherever one goes, as that would make superiors seriously doubt one's political ability.
However, one cannot appease everyone, as this would leave a mess and could directly lead to the end of one's political career.

The balance involved is quite difficult to strike.

But Angel has some insights to share.

The key is to know what the alliance, or rather the new empire, really wants.
Is it really about taking the lives and money of these powerful and wealthy families?

no.

Money has no meaning for the new empire.

It wouldn't be worth killing those powerful and wealthy people. After all, the powerful families and local interest groups that are still active in the imperial politics are either those who shed blood and contributed their efforts during the Terra Wars, or at least those who distanced themselves from Chaos and did not side with the darkness.

In the context of the previous Terran Wars, when many hives had fallen and Chaos corruption was rampant, it was quite remarkable that the nobles of these imperial capitals, to varying degrees, displayed the spirit of humanity.

The stereotypes about them being corrupt, indulging in sensual pleasures, and living extravagantly are true. At the same time, it doesn't prevent them from being among the elite of humanity; on matters of principle, although some have fallen into depravity, a significant proportion have still maintained a moral compass.

It is inappropriate to directly raise the butcher's knife against these people.

Even setting aside their past achievements, these people, who received the best education from a young age, have seen the world, and have been tempered by the Terra Wars, are all talented individuals—provided that their intelligence is not misused.

Slaughtering all of these people would be a huge loss. Besides, the Alliance never slaughters those who have rendered meritorious service.

But the premise is that it cannot block the way.

Want to become an official? Sure.
If you want to start a business, you can;

Even if one simply wants to be a parasite, relying on historical achievements and economic resources, one can live a good life without doing anything, which is barely acceptable.

What the alliance absolutely cannot accept is that these families still control the means of production at the grassroots and lower levels of society, forming a stable economic-political interest group.

In the long run and on a larger scale, this will seriously threaten the regime of the new empire.

It's not obvious yet, because these families have just experienced the ravages of war, and their vitality has been severely damaged. Politically, they also lack sufficient positions due to the alliance's takeover and the pressure from the Infinite Starfield, making them appear weak. However, given time, they will gradually rise again by relying on their influence at the bottom of society.

Whoever controls the productive forces is the one who controls the grassroots of society.

The alliance system needs to function in Holy Terra as well. If it doesn't want to be just an empty shell, these interest groups must be eliminated.

This has nothing to do with whether these families are obedient or not.

They are indeed very obedient now because the war has just ended, the new empire has just been established, and they haven't yet figured out or established the new rules of the game in society. The authority established by the alliance is also quite profound.

But who can guarantee they'll always obey?

Moreover, their so-called 'obedience' is already something the league can hardly tolerate.

Take, for example, the conflict between development and expeditions with the new empire's central government; the stance of these local interest groups is very wavering.

Some quickly became interested in using their influence in Hive to engage in political opportunism. Some joined the alliance but demanded benefits; others, under the guise of supporting the expedition, joined the Regent's side…

This situation is unacceptable.

Moreover, even if these local interest groups simply follow the central government's requirements for production, they still have many ulterior motives.

They really enjoy taking government orders, but only under certain conditions.

If the profits are high and the business is easy, then we'll do it with our own core businesses.
Generally, the work is subcontracted layer by layer, with profits deducted and outsourced to external companies. In addition, these ordinary entrepreneurs have to sing their praises and beg for food in order to get anything.

Those businesses with low profit margins, difficult operations, and the potential for losses are also subcontracted to them, forcibly transferring the work to companies and factories unrelated to them, or even those they have a grudge against. They squeeze every last drop of profit, lowering product quality or failing to fulfill orders altogether, which conveniently shifts the blame onto these companies. The individuals are convicted, the factories are fined, and if they can't survive, they can be merged…

This resulted in a waste of overall efficiency and hindered the alliance's development strategy.

If we don't take action now and eliminate these powerful figures who, despite their past achievements, are now blocking our path, the problem will only become more serious and difficult to resolve in the future.

At the same time, "consuming" them to enhance efficiency and increase production capacity is also key to alleviating the contradiction between the current imperial government's development strategy and the Regent's Palace's expeditionary strategy.

With more resources and greater production capacity, His Highness the Regent's requested expedition scale can be achieved more quickly.

That's why Gu Hang was able to persuade him.

All the complaints filed against the Ministry of Justice and those reported to the Regent's Palace were completely ignored. Even when some people of high status came to him, they were told that the Regent was supervising training at the fleet.

(End of this chapter)