From the perspective of Viscount Nan Jiu, the Source Star Fleet was completely in a dilemma with no solution.
For seven whole days, the Source Star Fleet never sent a single ship to land, and only continued to conduct high-altitude exploration like a bunch of flies.
Even if the Source Star fleet does not land, it has already begun to dismantle the armed ships. It seems that it is planning to build stronger ships by demolishing the east wall to repair the west wall.
Viscount Nan Jiu once thought that Ren Zhong's plan was to try to strengthen the structure of the ship to force a landing.
He laughed heartily at that time, just waiting for a good show in his heart.
He especially wanted to know Ren Zhong's wonderful expression when he discovered that the landing ship he had carefully prepared had fallen, but found that no matter how strong the structure was, it was impossible to withstand the Star Destroyer Ants.
But after a moment Southgate felt confused again.
Yuan Xingbo must be a smart man. Now that he has discovered the Star Destroyer Ants, he will definitely find ways to test the characteristics of this strange life form. He should not be unable to judge that no matter how strong the ship is, it will only become a better version of the Star Destroyer Ants.
The reality of a delicious meal.
After wondering for a while, Southgate no longer cared about it.
He also remembered that five days ago, he used his power as the director of the Military and Political Department of the Nanjiu System to forcefully reject Ren Zhong's application to seize the Nanjiu Star's light energy and stellar wind material beyond the quota.
Thinking that Ren Zhong could no longer pretend to be profound at that time, and could only act like he was angry, yelling, and incompetent, Southgate burst out laughing, overjoyed and satisfied.
According to imperial law, since Ren Zhong owns a planet in the Nanjiu system, he has certain rights to exploit stellar energy.
But based on the mining rights designated by the empire, it would take at least forty years to obtain enough nuclear fusion energy.
Southgate feels he has everything under control.
Of course, since he has never been able to successfully place spies, he did not know that the industrial machines and scientific research machines in all the ships in the Source Star Fleet were at full power.
That must be something he has never seen before, the explosive power that real human civilization should have.
After arranging everything properly, Ren Zhong entered cryo-sleep again.
Time flies, and he has been sleeping for five years. During this period, he woke up intermittently due to important matters, but the total time did not exceed a month.
But most of the others don't get this treatment. After all, there are too many specific tasks that need to be completed in the fleet.
Chen Yinghua, the general manager of the commercial transportation company, has been working here for many years and has traveled many business routes in the Nanxiang Star Cluster. He has established many personal connections and is familiar with the business environment of the Nanxiang Star Cluster.
It's just a pity that the nearly 8,000 annual ships in the fleet are already overcrowded, and they are mostly used for residential purposes, so they are really unable to perform transportation tasks.
For the time being, the commercial transportation company still only has a thousand annual ships available and cannot expand.
The enhancement of the fleet to the commercial transportation company mainly lies in the fact that each annual ship can be equipped with some special small ships such as eye ships and shuttle ships, which can improve the armed strength of the fleet to bear some risks that could not be borne before.
Logistics and transportation work.
But the strange thing is that just when Chen Yinghua was getting ready for a big fight, he was very embarrassed to find that many parties who had happily cooperated with him for many years had chosen to terminate the cooperation.
It is obvious that the comprehensive blockade of Nanxiang Earl's Mansion and Nanjiu Viscount has come into effect, which is to cut off the source of the Source Star Fleet's financial resources.
The total ban has indeed caused heavy damage to the Source Star Fleet. What is even worse is that due to the delay in fully developing Nanjiu C, the Source Star Fleet has almost no special products to sell to the outside world.
For many returning fleets looking for colonies, there is another big business that is particularly common, which is the human trade.
Based on the average professional level, knowledge level and genetic level of the crew members of the Source Star Fleet, they must be considered a high-quality population in the Nanxiang Star Cluster, and they will definitely not worry about sales.
In fact, many viscounts in the Nanxiang Star Cluster have tried to contact the Baron family and expressed their willingness to pay high prices to purchase some high-quality people from the Source Star Fleet to increase the family's diversity and optimize genetic information.
This so-called "optimization", to put it bluntly, is because after thousands of years and dozens of generations of development, the humans of the Origin Star are no longer affected by the inferior genes injected by Uncle Nanxiang. They can be regarded as pure genes with greater potential. To put it bluntly,
, which is a fine "thoroughbred stallion".
If these nobles need to hire Ren Zhong's subjects to work, then maybe we can still negotiate. But according to the transaction terms provided by these people, the commodity attributes of these people are clearly emphasized. If they really sell people, Ren Zhong feels that these
The people have absolutely no chance to display their ambitions. They can only be "stallions" who work hard all their lives without complaining. They cannot be exposed to any substantive work. They are basically slaves.
Therefore, although Ren Zhong coveted the prices offered by others, he ultimately rejected all human trade invitations without hesitation, cutting off an important way of making money.
The Fleet Academy of Sciences has also thought about using its own research and development capabilities to undertake some entrusted scientific research tasks. But the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is cruel. Scientific research projects are core areas for any force. If anyone dares to use scientific research at this time
Entrusting the project to the Source Star Fleet means that a clear position has been chosen in the dispute between the two counts of the Nanxiang Star Cluster.
Unless one day Zhongzhong breaks Liu An's power blockade, or the humans of the Origin Star show their unparalleled ability to turn stone into gold in the field of scientific research, it is impossible to receive orders in the short term.
To sum up, the current financial source of the fleet is only the auxiliary scientific computing project led by the Royal Academy of Sciences.
This so-called auxiliary scientific computing project is actually the same thing as the contribution points that people can get after using a watch to hypnotize them on the Source Star. The difference is that the treatment is more generous.
In addition, after arriving in the empire, humans on Origin Star can still use their existing contribution points to purchase anti-aging medicines developed by the Royal Academy of Sciences and produced by the pharmaceutical factory commissioned by the Augustus family to extend their lifespan.
According to imperial law, Southgate cannot cut off the supply of this potion.
It is foreseeable that in the near future, the average life span of the Source Star Fleet will soon catch up with the average level of the Mechanical Empire.
This is also the reason why many middle and upper-level managers no longer have to count the days to count their lifespans as before, but have to freeze from time to time.
Regarding the plight of the Commercial Transport Company, the Fleet Command had no choice but to completely renovate the annual ship owned by the Commercial Transport Company and install more laser transmitters underneath it.
At this time, the fleet has completed most of the transformation work.
Exactly one thousand light energy capturing sails belonging to the Source Star have also begun to orbit the Southern Nine Star in a close orbit.
Many scientific research projects related to the planetary transformation plan are also progressing steadily.
Ren Zhong must face a new dilemma.
The problem still lies in the collection of nuclear fusion raw materials.
When formulating the plan, Ren Zhong and the fleet members had considered the external environment to be difficult enough, but the reality was still shocking.
What he encountered was an all-round blockade on trade, economy, resources and technology. It was really airtight and there were no dead ends.
The fleet of four billion people obviously lived within the empire's territory and had the ability to sail across the stars, but they were forced to live a poor life of isolation from the outside world.
If nuclear fusion materials such as hydrogen isotopes can only be captured piecemeal from stellar winds near the South Nine Star, the originally planned sixteen-year preparation period will have to be extended to at least twenty-five years.
The conventional reserve super batteries have long been exhausted, and the fleet must continue to consume resources to release high-energy lasers to drive away white flying ants, maintain scientific research progress, maintain and transform ships, maintain the ship's ecological environment, and produce daily necessities. In all aspects.
The expenses are not small, and the fleet can only save money and save money. It will take years and months to get what it wants.
In the throne room, Ren Zhong, who had just woken up, held another meeting.
Previously, he had checked the development status of the fleet at an extremely fast speed.
Over the past five years, many things have gone according to plan.
The transformation of laser transmitters against white ants has been halfway completed. Now five hundred annual merchant ships have completed technical transformation and personnel training. These former merchant ships are now orbiting around Nanjiu C. One after another high-energy lasers are coming from high altitudes.
Scan down to continuously drive the white ants towards the two focal points. Due to the insufficient density of the high-energy laser, the white ants have not been completely driven away yet. However, the Fleet Academy of Science studied the living habits of a small number of white ants that were hunted and artificially bred.
I think it is just right to maintain the current intensity. If the density of white ants in the two hot and cold poles of Nanjiu C is exceeded through continuous driving, the white ants may invade the star mantle in advance.
The battleship transformation is progressing faster.
The original size of nearly 4,000 armed warships has been reduced to 2,000.
Although a lot of equipment has been installed and the performance parameters of many core components have been changed, the internal space of the battleship has not expanded, but has become smaller.
All the original daily living spaces with leisure and entertainment functions were demolished and converted into functional modules related to military capabilities. Instead, the number of people on board each ship increased to 60,000, and the per capita living space dropped by a full 80%.
From a single room in the past to a dormitory for many people, Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian didn't think this was a problem.
The core reason why previous armed battleships had to reserve so much living space was that the voyage was too long, and the battleship had to have a residential function, otherwise it would be psychologically unbearable for people to live in it generation after generation.
Times have changed, and today's armed forces no longer need to consider conventional quality of life. Soldiers should have a military attitude.
The military system has also been reorganized, and 120 million people have passed the selection process and become the new faces of the streamlined and strong military.
Some of the other 280 million grassroots soldiers have been assigned to the thousand annual ships of Yuanxing Commercial Transport, and some are still on the annual ships of the original fleet.
Other scientific research work related to planetary transformation is still in full swing.
Some projects that scientific researchers did not dare to guarantee in the past have finally been able to give precise timetables, such as new three-phase nuclear fusion blasting technology, reflector technology, white ant ecological research, and new stellar wind plasma capture technology.
When all the issues are brought together and then thoroughly demonstrated, the real core issue is reunited at one point, which is still the on-time collection of nuclear fusion materials.
We must break the blockade between Viscount Nan Jiu and Uncle Nan Xiang and obtain more nuclear fusion materials.
At the meeting, someone suggested that Mr. Nanxiang was going too far. Since the other party ignored the rules and did the first grade of junior high school, he should also do the fifteenth grade and secretly send a small spaceship to other sparsely populated stars in the Nanxiang star cluster.
Collect. Anyway, those things are ownerless, so we can’t even pick things up on the ground.
But this proposal was quickly rejected. It was not that the imperial law did not allow it, but that if you want to go to other stars, you need to use a warp subspace channel to cross the long distance. Each time you enter and exit the subspace channel, it consumes a lot of energy.
At the end of the day, there really isn't much left over from a round trip. Going out to pick things up is really a time-consuming, labor-intensive but very inefficient thing. It's a drop in the bucket and it doesn't help much.
Ma Xiaoling suggested that she simply steal or rob them. There are ready-made gaseous planets in the Nanjiu Galaxy. If you don't rob them, it will be useless. Her bad idea was immediately suppressed. God knows how many pairs of eyes are staring at the Source Star Fleet now, whether it is stealing
Or rob, as long as Liu An gets the handle, he will definitely make a fuss like crazy and become a stain on Ren Zhongzong.
When everyone else almost ran out of ideas, Ren Zhong finally came up with his plan with a smile.
A month later, Ren Zhong and Viscount Wen Yuanbo issued a joint statement stating that they had reached a strategic partnership.
Three months later, an armed transport convoy consisting of two thousand improved warships, led by Ren Zhong, the commander of the expedition, set off from Nanjiu C and entered the warping subspace passage.
Eighteen months later, the fleet crossed most of the Nanxiang star cluster, appeared at the other end far away from the Nanjiu star, and headed towards the broken star ring on the other side at 0.15 times the speed of light.
At this point, the purpose of the mission is clearly revealed.
Leaving the exit of the Warp Subspace Channel and continuing outside, there is a strategic-level ultra-long-range stargate located 0.12 light-years away.
This ultra-long-distance stargate is directly under the jurisdiction of officials sent by the royal family. It is a giant space station hundreds of times larger than the Lookout.
Liu An's main fiefdoms are also near the Star Gate Space Station, and are most closely connected with the empire's center.
Further outside the giant space station, at a distance of 0.11 light-years, is the area closest to the Broken Star Ring and the Nanxiang Star Cluster, and is also the area with the highest density of space pirates.
In the entire Nanxiang star cluster, the most fertile hunting area is the 0.12 light-year journey from the subspace passage to the Stargate space station.
A large number of space pirates use different means to lurk here, like hungry wolves in the forest secretly spying on every fat sheep caravan that can undertake long-distance trade at the cluster level, but are unwilling to pay a lot of money to hire the security officer of Nanxiang Earl's Mansion.
.
The nearby Nanxiang Bo's private army certainly turned a blind eye to these pirates.
The powerful Imperial fleet that guards the giant space station also rarely interferes with space piracy.
The motivations of the two are completely different.
The reason why Nanxiang Earl's Mansion stood aside was that they had a deep connection with the pirates.
However, the imperial fleet is too lazy to interfere in the internal strife between these low-class people. This is the empire's strategy to raise enemies. Anyway, no pirates would dare to challenge the majesty of the empire's regular army.
In the Earl of Nanxiang's Mansion, the person in charge of the secret service who was in contact with Southgate had just received the information from the informant of the supply space station near the subspace passage. He immediately analyzed it and quickly came to a conclusion.
Obviously, Ren Zhong received a large order across star clusters through the royal viscount Wen Yuanbo.
The reward for this order was so generous that it could reverse his predicament, so he decided to take a desperate risk and personally lead the team to try to break through the dangerous pirate area and complete this large order.
The secret service chief issued orders through a secret channel.
This order appeared simultaneously in front of the leader of Storm, the most active large-scale pirate group nearby.
The Storm Pirates have excellent ships that can travel at 0.2 times the speed of light.
In terms of rapid maneuverability, the Storm Pirates' strength surpasses that of Shattered Star Ring.
Even if they just set off from the base now, there is still a chance to intercept the Source Star Fleet before it reaches the Star Gate.