Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1318 - 500: Plans and Changes

Under the linguistic artistry of Viscount Nan Jiu, everyone felt like they had won.

In this little intrigue, there were no losers.

Everyone was overwhelmingly satisfied.

On the return journey, Ren Zhong promptly organized an online meeting involving all middle and senior personnel.

At this time, the recruitment team led by Grune had already left the Source Star Fleet in disgrace, taking away fewer than forty thousand people.

Most of them were made up of the waste team formed by the nine major families and their close affiliates.

Only a few were seasoned individuals who had climbed their way up from the bottom.

However, the intentions of these individuals in joining the nine Viscount families had become more complex.

After the receiving fleet departed, many friends and relatives left behind by the defectors proactively found the managers on various ships to hand in the handwritten letters left by those who departed.

The reason they did not leave electronic records through the "net" might be due to the habit Ren Zhong developed back then out of fear of exposing secrets under the "net’s" watchful eye, which unknowingly spread around.

Many expressed that they didn’t sincerely wish to leave the Source Star Fleet but felt that someone needed to go out, to interact with people and events outside, to keep up with technological developments, and to accumulate connections and resources. This would facilitate the expansion of influence from Source Star outward and create a bridgehead for exchanging needs with other forces in the Star Cluster.

It must be said that their considerations indeed held some validity.

So much so that the fleet’s top management secretly improved their perception of these "traitors" significantly.

Yet, the leadership harbored a new confusion in their hearts.

If even the outstanding individuals among the grassroots could recognize this issue, why hadn’t the meticulous Earl already made arrangements?

During the meeting, Ren Zhong provided an explanation.

He had indeed considered it, but since there were professions like Telekinesis Masters on Source Star, he didn’t think that in the current technological disadvantage, it would be easy to deliberately install spies.

Rather than forcing it, it was better to go with the flow. He even hoped that these individuals who took the initiative to leave a "record" would not concern themselves with Source Star Fleet’s affairs in the future but serve their new masters earnestly and create value.

As long as he could successfully establish the Source Star Fleet in the Nanxiang Star Cluster and grow stronger, those who left the fleet today would have descendants and families in the future who could wait for the opportunity to activate their bridgehead identities without any worries, rather than becoming activated spies now and ending up in perilous situations, living in constant danger.

Ren Zhong said, "Having more help when gaining the right path and less help when losing it is one aspect. But the Empire and the original Source Star are actually the same, operating under a similar law of the jungle where the weak are prey to the strong. When we’re still weak, implanting spies will not create value but only invite trouble and unnecessary disputes. Instead of pondering unorthodox paths, it’s better to focus on developing ourselves first. As long as we’re strong enough, those who choose to leave the fleet today will naturally become the bridgehead for many external forces trying to engage with us, akin to so-called diplomatic personnel."

"Ultimately, strength speaks for itself. I am aware of their concerns, worrying that the humans from Source Star would be completely blocked in the Nanxiang Star Cluster, forced into a state of isolation. But this is actually an over-worry; the Imperial Royal Academy of Sciences’ technology-sharing strategy can at most block us in resources, but not in technology. The only thing that can limit our technology is my title."

With Ren Zhong’s statement, everyone present suddenly understood and felt much more at ease.

Next, at the meeting, everyone first analyzed the internal situation of the Southern Nine Star System from a diplomatic perspective.

According to the Empire’s basic position, different titles received different ranges of fiefs.

An Earl could control few to several dozen Planet Systems, at most hundreds.

A Viscount’s fief could not exceed ten adjacent Planet Systems.

As for a Baron’s fief, it plunged to as little as a land the size of a continent, at most covering one entire planet.

The vast Empire constructs unique civilization traits, different from the surface civilization of a secluded planet. In the Empire, no matter what one does, it always takes a particularly long time and consumes particularly many resources.

For instance, conducting a scientific research activity on Source Star involves, at most, a few million people simultaneously, and the time from project initiation to results is at least a few years to a few decades, rarely spanning a century.