lcionline Chapter 431 Controlling the Army and Cavalry of the World
Chapter 431 Controlling the Army and Cavalry of the World
Eternal Era Year 15: 2346 AD.
Ten years have passed since the victory in the war against the invasion of the Human Federation.
Indeed, in the current history textbooks of the Earth United Government, the surprise attack launched by Zhang Beihai's fleet against the Earth United Government is clearly defined as an invasion by an external enemy.
This definition is not President Bi Yunfeng's intention to distort history, but is based on an unavoidable fact: in that fierce battle, the Earth Alliance Space Force paid a heavy price with the sacrifice of many officers and soldiers.
Characterizing this conflict as an internal struggle would not only severely damage Mr. Lin Xuan's historical reputation, but also fail to provide a reasonable explanation to the families who lost loved ones. Therefore, even former President Luo Congmin, who knew everything, had to acquiesce to Bi Yunfeng's actions.
"Your Excellency, Marshal Cao Mir requests an audience outside the capital." The adjutant handed a request for approval to Bi Yunfeng, who merely glanced at it before nodding in agreement.
Cao Mir, son of Cao Bin, is a Wallfacer who has resurrected from the dead. However, neither the Earth faction led by Luo Congmin nor the Star Ring faction led by Bi Yunfeng is likely to fully trust this Wallfacer who has the ability to rebel and has repeatedly shown his intention to rebel.
Without Lin Xuan's restraint, placing him in this position would be like a ticking time bomb. However, the position of fleet marshal could not remain vacant forever. Fortunately, Cao Bin had a capable son who filled the vacancy.
"Let him in."
Bi Yunfeng didn't even bother to turn his head. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he had watched Cao Mier grow up, but his position as Marshal of the Space Force had little to do with him or even his father Cao Bin. Rather, it was something that the boy had earned through hard work.
Cao Bin only had one son. Like others, the child's name should be a Chinese surname plus a string of English words. However, Old Cao didn't like this naming method that became popular at the beginning of the Deterrence Era, so he only took the sound and named him Cao Mir.
According to him, this kind of half-foreign, half-Western name sounds like a hybrid, which naturally displeased Ai AA and a group of government officials who had the same naming method. However, the good news is that Cao Bin did not mind offending these people. In fact, his behavior was even more excessive than his words.
Since Zhang Beihai withdrew his fleet, Bi Yunfeng's ambition to become president has been completely exposed.
In the past, he could still call himself "acting president," claiming that he was only temporarily assuming the power granted to him by Lin Xuan and Luo Congmin. However, the imminent arrival of Zhang Beihai's army forced Luo Congmin, who had been hiding behind the scenes, to reveal himself, and the legitimacy of Bi Yunfeng's regime suffered a fatal blow.
Despite his command of three major fleets, despite the full support of the Star Ring Group, and despite the unprecedented improvement in people's lives under his rule, Luo Congmin's return, with just her name, was enough to cause Bi Yunfeng's years of painstaking power plot to crumble.
Fortunately, Luo Congmin had no intention of taking over the Earth Alliance, and had never even personally boarded the Ring World. The two sides maintained a tacit non-interference with each other, and Bi Yunfeng, who successfully ascended to the throne, finally revealed his true intentions.
The Earth Alliance of the Eternal Era currently faces two most pressing problems, the most pressing being resource shortages—essentially a financial crisis.
According to Wang Miao and others' original plan, the ringworld would be powered by the Sun. As long as it did not encounter the devastating "solar helium flash" disaster predicted in some science fiction works, the energy would be enough to support humanity to reach the outer edge of the Elbato star cluster.
However, this calculation has a fatal flaw: the Earth Federation government cannot allow all solar energy to be unconditionally supplied to the Ring World. After all, human civilization has only just crossed the threshold of Type II civilization and is still a long way from Type III. This energy still has enormous strategic value for the overall development of the Earth Federation. More importantly, the "installment payment" model for the supply of solar energy has ironically prompted various factions within the Earth Federation to harbor some undesirable ambitions.
To put it simply, the Ringworld is not doing energy conversion. Its function is more like inserting a conduit into the sun, a reservoir, to channel energy for propulsion. This way of using energy naturally results in a lot of waste. Initially, the board of directors of the Star Ring Group chose to take on this task and carry out secondary energy utilization. Bi Yunfeng thought that this matter did not seem to have any major disadvantages, so he nodded in agreement.
But soon, the Earth Alliance discovered that something was wrong. These capitalists were indeed hard to change. They used the orbital positions approved for them by the Earth Alliance to build a large number of mining stations, forming a stellar energy extraction array.
This behavior was quickly stopped by the Earth Alliance. Bi Yunfeng wasn't worried that their actions would affect the speed of the Ringworld's journey. After all, this amount of energy consumption was negligible compared to the Sun's. If he really cared about this, it would be as ridiculous as the old lady in the neighborhood demanding that 5G base stations be shut down for fear of radiation.
What he was most worried about was that the Star Ring Group would break away from the Earth Alliance again and form an independent force. After all, without these financial giants to bleed the Earth Alliance dry, many of his policies would be difficult to implement.
So Bi Yunfeng gave Xinghuan Group a formal military review, letting them know where their money had gone all these years. With a salvo from the flagship's main cannon, Xinghuan Group's facilities were instantly turned into a pile of space debris.
"We're all family. Without your help, I wouldn't be where I am today." Bi Yunfeng greeted Ai AA with a smile, even though her face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
"It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. Our fleet accidentally fired. To show our compensation to the Star Ring Group, the Earth Alliance will take the initiative to bear the reconstruction costs of these extraction facilities. From now on, Chairman Ai, you won't have to worry about it. We will directly send the energy from Emerald Lake to the Star Ring Group through the equipment. What do you think?"
Ai AA was so angry that she couldn't speak, but she had no choice but to admit defeat. After all, in that battle, the Star Ring Group's troops were completely wiped out by the Human Alliance. Now, Bi Yunfeng came to power through a coup. Although he didn't follow Zhao Kuangyin's example of emphasizing civil affairs over military affairs, he firmly held the right to manufacture warships, making the Star Ring Group a blood bag for the entire Earth Alliance, and it could only obediently act as a commercial center.
The second major task was the reconstruction of the fleet. After all, the last war had resulted in heavy losses. Apart from the research institute's fleet, the other three fleets had suffered losses of up to 60% of the total fleet size and had to be rebuilt.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, various forces began to try to get involved in the military. Bi Yunfeng had already killed the goose that laid the golden eggs for the Star Ring Group, so he naturally had to rely on these people to consolidate his political position. He had promised out no less than twenty fleet commanders.
Officials at all levels each controlled a fleet, and some high-ranking officials even had more fleets than Bi Yunfeng.
With power decentralized from the central government, local conflicts and rebellions naturally ensued, leading to the rise of numerous warlords. To the uninformed, it might seem as if the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period were about to repeat themselves.
But it was at this critical moment that Cao Mier stepped forward.
He first relied on his father Cao Bin's prestige in the research institute to gather the largest remaining research institute fleet, and then launched a decapitation operation against the fleets controlled by the current Minister of the Army Mo Xiemod, the current Minister of Finance Liu Ming, and the current Minister of Education Hopes.
Before anyone could react, the entire fleet under the command of these three men was swiftly taken over, and a notice was issued to Bi Yunfeng, requiring him to issue Presidential Order No. 1, appointing him as Marshal of the Space Force and giving him control over all military forces in the land.
Fifteen days later, the more than twenty fleets that Bi Yunfeng had dispatched were personally visited one by one by Cao Mier, the god of civil war, and in the end, control of all the fleets was returned to the central government.
As for why it is said to be brought under central control, it is because wherever Cao Mier is now, that is the central location of the Earth Alliance.
Fortunately, this person wasn't interested in Bi Yunfeng's position. Otherwise, his Uncle Bi, who had held him since he was a child, would probably have rediscovered his old passion for scientific research and gone to the research institute to accompany Cao Bin.