Chapter 1696: Solar Fleet Audit (2) |
Master of the Dark Side of the Empire... Dark Side Expedition... Legion-scale Interstellar Warriors... Vast Star Sea Fleet...
Every piece of news strikes at the hearts of the Empire’s elite.
The mentality of the elites is complex, Song Min doesn’t know how to describe others, but at least from his own perspective, he actually has a fundamental thought:
It seems that the events happening in the east make the so-called Alliance look more like the Empire than Holy Terra.
Regarding Gu Jing’s arrival, he carries with him respect.
Respect for both Robert and Gu Hang.
But subsequently, the so-called ’method’ presented by Gu Jing left him stunned.
Gu Jing laid out his plan in his office—he claimed that within the next three days, he would try his best to identify the chaotic corrupt elements within the Solar Fleet.
The specific method of identification relied on the shadow of the Magic Lord of Thousand Changes appearing behind him.
To talk about identifying corrupt elements, this guy carrying a Great Demon of Jian Qi with him, isn’t he the head of the corrupt elements?
Yet under Gu Jing’s reassurance, Song Min reluctantly believed him.
Primarily because he didn’t have many additional things he needed to do.
Just prepare an interrogation room and prison, preferably bigger and more secretive.
Then, he watched as Gu Jing sat in his office, not moving much.
Following that, the team accompanying Gu Jing, composed of several Infinite Warriors and several Judges, along with a group of guards and Judges trusted by Song Min on the ship, formed a secret team.
In the designated interrogation room by Gu Jing, they ’welcomed’ batches of officers and commanders from different ships. Clarifying their identities, taking them away, and imprisoning them was just the beginning.
These people are familiar to Song Min.
After all, they are his subordinates—though they may not necessarily belong to the same faction as him, and usually, it’s hard to command them. Nevertheless, there are still a few he previously considered as his own.
Yet now, they are all brought in?
Initially, he was hesitant, conflicted, even somewhat distrustful of Gu Jing.
Though the methods Gu Jing displayed were miraculous, silently teleporting people from different warships directly onto his ’Eternal Fire’. But surely, you can’t just believe whoever Gu Jing claims is a traitor?
He arranged an examination, a deep corruption inspection of individuals, directly searching memories and testing the purity and integrity of genes and the skull.
The effect of this was quite clear, the results of the inspection were reliable. Previously, it was unusable due to its slow nature; deeply inspecting one person took a day or two, and the established inspection room could only check one or two people at a time, requiring one-on-one professional inspectors...not suitable for large-scale screening, especially when dealing with varying factions and highly-ranked naval officers and commanders who don’t play nice.
Yet, in terms of inspection and characterization of a single target, the accuracy is quite reliable.
And the inspection results proved that those Gu Jing captured were entirely reliable.
Though not everyone could be examined, every one inspected was indeed a corrupt element.
At this point, Song Min completely gave up.
Just follow Gu Jing’s lead.
The entire examination process lasted two days.
Gu Jing captured a total of 1638 individuals, distributed across 273 warships, with corrupt elements ranging from 2 to 9 people per ship.
This will almost cover a quarter of the remaining ships of the Solar Fleet.
The destruction they can cause when necessary is exceptionally high.
Clearing away these corrupt elements is undeniably paramount.
With such destructive corrupt elements present, any peace talks are nonsense.
Only after their removal can negotiations potentially succeed.
Of course, Gu Jing also told Marshal Song that, currently, things are far from reassuring. The number of corrupt elements is definitely far more than these thousand or so people.
Examining the senior officers and commanders of 273 warships doesn’t imply the senior officers on the remaining ships are reliable. There may still be senior officers, either due to caution or Gu Jing lacking the time to deceive, who have not been uncovered.
After all, the time given to Gu Jing was indeed a bit too short.
What he accomplished was essentially utilizing the characteristics of the Magic Lord of Thousand Changes, broadcasting specific ’channels’ containing information most likely to be received by high-level Jian Qi followers.
Through dreams and the whispers in their minds.
If the other party doesn’t believe it, there’s nothing more to be done.
Moreover, even with those 200-plus warships, capturing high-ranking commanders doesn’t guarantee cleanliness.
When even high-ranking commanders become corrupt elements, the number of regular officers and sailors on the ships being corrupted by utilizing their superior’s power advantage is utterly immeasurable.
However, what Gu Jing has done so far remains invaluable.
At least, the over two hundred ships cleared of corrupt heads will react much slower or may not be able to react at all when attempting to stir trouble afterward.
On the third day, Marshal Song Min, following Gu Jing’s pre-arranged plan, issued the final order to every ship in the Solar Fleet, in his role as Fleet Commander-in-chief, carrying a command from Regent King Robert:
He demands that all remaining loyal Imperial Navy ships move out of Holy Terra’s orbit to the designated coordinates—a space area not too far from the Moon Base—gather together to accept the Regent King’s command.
Of course, this order cannot be smoothly executed and will undoubtedly trigger an uproar.
If it could be successfully executed without incident, then the previous operations wouldn’t have been necessary.
Numerous opposing voices emerged, even many questioning whether Marshal Song Min is the biggest traitor, using this opportunity to lure them out to kill.
This time, however, Song Min’s stance was unprecedentedly firm.
Within the time limit, he divided all the ships into three categories based on their actions.
The first category follows orders, heading to the designated space area for assembly and inspection. These people are truly the loyal faction of the Empire. They will receive the honor they deserve and will continue to be part of the illustrious Imperial Navy in the future.
The second category hesitates and does not accept orders, but regardless, at the appointed time, the Regent King’s fleet will enter Holy Terra’s orbit and conduct military operations. Those who do not obstruct the Expeditionary Fleet can barely be considered loyal, and post-war they must undergo a diligence examination to ascertain their true composition.
The third category consists of obstructers.
Of course, this order cannot be smoothly executed and will undoubtedly trigger an uproar.
If it could be successfully executed without incident, then the previous operations wouldn’t have been necessary.
Numerous opposing voices emerged, even many questioning whether Marshal Song Min is the biggest traitor, using this opportunity to lure them out to kill.
This time, however, Song Min’s stance was unprecedentedly firm.
Within the time limit, he divided all the ships into three categories based on their actions.
The first category follows orders, heading to the designated space area for assembly and inspection. These people are truly the loyal faction of the Empire. They will receive the honor they deserve and will continue to be part of the illustrious Imperial Navy in the future.
The second category hesitates and does not accept orders, but regardless, at the appointed time, the Regent King’s fleet will enter Holy Terra’s orbit and conduct military operations. Those who do not obstruct the Expeditionary Fleet can barely be considered loyal, and post-war they must undergo a diligence examination to ascertain their true composition.
The third category consists of obstructers.