Chapter 897: Saints Purge

Chapter 897: Saints Purge
The Truth is the Queen of Glory battleship of the Saints Regiment.

In his meditation room, Raymond Weiss sat in his exclusive seat with a serious expression.

The request to the alliance's top management for a call with Gu Hang has been approved.

Arriving two hours earlier than the agreed time, Raymond Weiss had been deep in thought, rubbing his fingers on the untied power armor gloves, letting the rough scripture reliefs rub his knuckles and leave blood marks.

He thought for a long time, until the holographic projectors hummed in the four corners of the cabin and Gu Hang's shadow gradually took shape, he came back to his senses.

"Hello, Captain Perk Raymond Wes." Gu Hang greeted him, and his attitude was quite cordial and friendly.

However, after the greeting, the second sentence spoken had already entered the topic.

"I heard that you personally executed three sector bishops?"

"They instigated a heresy accusation and manipulated the outcome of the accusation. The crazy believers burned the Protestant mission station with holy oil." The shoulder armor of the living saint reflected the red light of the skull candlestick, but his voice was more erratic than the candlelight. "So, I gave them the Emperor's mercy."

"Mercy? Ha!" Gu Hang sneered at this time, "During the rally, 72 Protestant priests and more than 3,000 believers were burned to death. The Crusades blocked the door, and those who could escape were driven back. Right in front of the Emperor's statue, the Emperor's believers were burned to death in the raging fire. It is said that the Emperor's statue, which is theoretically impervious to water and fire, collapsed in this tragic disaster.

"Even the Divine Emperor was unwilling to witness that scene with his own eyes."

"And what happened? It turns out they even deserve mercy!"

"It is just an execution. The charges will not be announced after the execution. The body can be buried in the temple and receive secret offerings and worship..."

Raymond Weiss was silent for a long time before he spoke with difficulty: "This is not what I meant. I will order a thorough investigation to find out who did not follow the instructions after the execution, deprived them of all their honors, and sheltered the traitors."

Gu Hang's projection took half a step forward, and the alliance badge on the shoulder strap suddenly shone brightly. "Do you need to check? Even I know who is behind this - the Cardinals of the Mercipat sect, twelve doctors of theology from thousand-year-old families, and..."

At the end, he would deliberately draw out his voice, forcing Raymond Weiss to say it himself.

"And the warriors I brought with me." Raymond Weiss stood up suddenly, and the holy sword on his waist sprang out half an inch in the movement. "But is this an unforgivable sin? They are practicing their beliefs, Protestantism... the Protestantism of the Alliance..."

Gritting his teeth, he finished his words, even though it might anger Gu Hang: "Isn't the Alliance's Protestantism a heresy you created to seize the power of the state religion? We are doing our best to maintain balance by tolerating the spread of Protestantism. Are you trying to wipe out our faith in the Emperor?"

But Gu Hang was not angry.

He just shook his head slightly and said, "Don't put yourself together with those hopeless people. I want you to remember the second section of Chapter 7 of The Word of the Emperor..."

Gu Hang's projection suddenly approached, and the illusory shadow transformed into a huge scripture scroll behind him, "Believers should practice what they preach and prove the truth with their lives."

Raymond Weiss knew exactly what Gu Hang was going to say next, and his expression did not change at all because of this scene.

Gu Hang looked at him and stopped talking.

His theological attainments were… just so-so. Debating with a living saint like Raymond Weiss was not his strong point.

Then he turned the conversation to things that happened in history.

And it’s recent history.

"On the planet Vale, the Seven Star Corridors have been recaptured. The war is over. The Protestant Church has arranged for Nurgle vaccines to be transported to the planet Vale in batches to contribute to the recovery of the planet's agricultural production areas and avoid the impact of the remaining plague..."

"The Merciphats had the absurd belief that this was an unclean product. Not only did they block the distribution and inoculation of the vaccine, they even insisted on executing all civilians who had received the Nurgle vaccine. As a result, the plague broke out on a large scale, and the warband known as the 'Plague Apocalypse Knights' took advantage of the spread of the plague and killed six hives along the route of the penitential procession."

"The plague caused a reduction in production on the Valley Star. A Protestant agricultural ship was deployed to the Valley Star, carrying the latest ecological farm components. However, it was guarded by Saint Warriors at the star port, preventing the ship from docking."

"Your descendants would rather watch countless people on the planet starve to death in the barren fields than allow the Protestant agricultural ships to dock at the orbital port."

"When they crushed the food transport ships with countless scrolls, they were trampling on the Emperor's true will!"

Raymond Weiss couldn't help but speak, his voice rising like a dying Thunderhawk gunship making its final dive: "But the Protestant pastors tore up the Saints' Prayer! They deleted the praise ceremony from their sermons!"

This is an important manifestation of the contradiction.

What is "Saints' Prayer"? It is a religious book written by a living saint commander who had a great influence on the state religion and the Saints' Chapter 4,000 years ago. It has a great influence and can almost be regarded as the mainstream book of the empire.

The so-called Merciphat sect adheres to the "Saints' Prayer" as its main scripture; each member of the Saints' Regiment, in addition to being a warrior, is also the most determined monk, and they themselves certainly adhere to this scripture. To put it bluntly, the Merciphat sect is the most direct successor and disseminator of the Saints' Regiment's religious ideas.

The conflict between the two sides is that Protestantism does not recognize anything except the "Words of the Emperors". This is a struggle for the right to interpret the scriptures. The "Prayers of the Saints" has gained such a great influence, it is not so easy to say that you will not recognize it.

"Faith should not be a chain. Whether it is the Mechanicus or the State Religion, it is the same. Using doctrine to hijack productivity and using indulgences to squeeze out the last rations, so-called faith becomes poison. Some things are done for faith, for the God-Emperor, for the Empire, for humanity, or because of some prejudice, stubbornness, or even conflicts of interest? I think you can see clearly."

"The Alliance's religion is free, not just Protestantism. There is nothing wrong with the Prayer of the Saints, but no book can be greater than the Word of the Emperor in terms of doctrine. Nor can anything be greater than the welfare of the entire human empire."

The captain's fingers dug deeply into the scripture relief, and blood flowed along the words "You shall not take the name of God in vain".

Gu Hang's voice made his mind reminisce about things that happened hundreds of years ago that he thought he had long forgotten. That was when he was a teenager, when he was not even a space warrior yet. The golden wheat waves were rippling in his hometown, and his mortal father was a farmer. At that time, he did not have too many thoughts, but he felt that every harvest season, the wafting wheat fragrance and the smiles on his uncles' faces were all moving.

Looking at the full warehouses of wheat and the smiling faces as the windmills turn, aren’t they indeed closer to the emperor’s love than moldy communion bread?

He didn't know why he suddenly remembered these things. In his hundreds of years of life, the things before the age of fifteen only accounted for 3% of his life. He originally thought that he had long forgotten those insignificant memories, but for some reason, he suddenly remembered them at this moment.

"So what do you want us to do? You want the Saints to betray their ten-thousand-year heritage? Like those fence-sitting sub-groups, let mortals shave off our traditions?"

His voice became more impatient. But Gu Hang felt that it was a good sign that Raymond Weiss was in this state at this time.

Gu Hang uttered a sentence softly:

"I want you to become true saints."

"The Chapter needs to be cleansed." When Raymond Weiss raised his head, his visor was covered with frost. "But how do you want me to convince the Chapter?"

"Do you need to be persuaded?" Gu Hang asked in return, "No one needs to be persuaded. Those who obey are loyal; those who rebel are traitors, that's all."

"Give me seventy-two hours."

He made a big decision.

Gu Hang finally smiled.

"If you need any help, feel free to tell Marshal Yan Fangxu. All the strength of the Western Expeditionary Force will be your strongest backing. Some confessionals need to be thoroughly purified in order to make the saints truly pure."

……

Gu Hang did not pay attention to how the bloody purge that lasted for 72 hours was carried out within the Saints Corps.

He only cares about whether this thing can be accomplished.

Raymond Weiss would eventually agree to carry out a purge within the regiment. This conversation with Gu Hang played a role, although it cannot be said to have no effect at all, but it was by no means the key factor.

In essence, he chose between the interests of the conservatives and Mesifatists within the chapter and the benefits of maintaining cooperation with the Alliance, and chose the latter.

This choice is absolutely correct from a rational point of view.

The benefits of cooperating with the Alliance are beyond words. Before the Alliance came, the Saints defended the Seven Star Corridor with all their might; after the Alliance came, the Seven Star Corridor was free of pressure, the equipment was fully supplied, the troops went to the front line, and participated in a greater journey...

What are the downsides of not cooperating with the league? As it stands now, the Saints have no room for regret.

The Saints and their sub-groups, as well as the Crusades, have fully joined the Alliance's military command sequence; the Alliance is also taking over the administration of the Mercifat star field.

At this time, what does it mean to say that you don’t want to do it anymore, you don’t want to integrate, and you don’t want to cooperate?
That's a traitor.

Is the alliance so easy to talk to?
The Alliance is so easy to talk to, so why is it that among all the universes, star fields, and worlds that have been recovered along the way, there is not a single one that does not join the Dark Side Expedition and accept the jurisdiction of the Alliance?

Gu Hang never made any threats, but Raymond Weiss couldn't be ignorant.

If it really gets to that point, there might be no way to end it.

This is still a rational statement from the perspective of weighing the pros and cons.

But in fact, this is only superficial.

If it were just about the benefits, it would not be enough for the saints to do this.

Are saints afraid of death?
If it is just a matter of interests or a threat to life and death, then whether it is a saint or Raymond Weiss himself, they will not hesitate to defend their beliefs with their own death.

If we delve deeper into it, it is actually a test for the saints: What is their so-called faith, 'creed, dogma, scripture', or 'empire first, humanity first'?
Is the imperial faith they uphold the former or the latter?
Some conservatives and Mesifatians in the Saints chose the former. They have been thinking and doing this for thousands of years, and they never felt that the former and the latter conflicted.

But Raymond Weiss saw that in the current environment, there is a conflict between the two. Gu Hang, the Alliance and the Dark Expedition represent the latter. When it comes to choosing between the two, which path should the Saints take?
He is different from the conservatives in the chapter, he is clearly a supporter of the latter.

This was what prompted him to quickly reach a cooperation with the Alliance after he met the Alliance and realized the Alliance's strength and code of conduct; it was also the reason why, after the religious beliefs of the regiment conflicted with the Alliance, no matter how painful it was in his heart, he would rather choose to turn the knife inward and cleanse himself in order to maintain cooperation with the Alliance.

However, this decision was still too difficult to make. Before this conversation with Gu Hang, Raymond Weiss still had some luck, thinking that there might be some place where he could compromise, or some better way to have the best of both worlds.

Gu Hang's meaning was very clear. It shattered his luck and fantasy and helped him make up his mind.

After the 72 hours promised by the Saints Corps Leader had passed, two detailed reports were delivered to Gu Hang's desk.

A self-report from Raymond Weiss.

The other one was from the Union Military Intelligence Bureau's investigation report on the internal cleansing of the Saints. They also watched coldly from the side throughout the whole process, and even provided a lot of help to Raymond Weiss, allowing some people who could have escaped or hidden to accept their due fate.

Gu Hang didn't care whether this rapid purge was bloody and thorough enough.

According to the statistics, how many saint warriors, saint sub-group warriors, high-ranking priests and bishops of the Meciphat sect, and those theological families who were purged were killed... the exact number of deaths is not a particularly important number.

Gu Hang is not a bloodthirsty person and does not take pleasure in this.

He only cares about the results.

The most direct manifestation of the effect was that he saw the name of the saint appear in the battle group interface in the system.

When he saw this, he knew that the cleansing of the saints was indeed complete.

(End of this chapter)