The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

2039. Francis Underwood’s Dilemma

Francis Underwood has been the Prime Minister of the Dawn Principality for more than 20 years. Even though his title was not Prime Minister when he was just awakened by Tang Xiao, he actually still performed the duties of Prime Minister.

But recently, he also began to feel a little powerless.

It's not a matter of age. Although he is now in his 70s, his energy is still very strong thanks to the maintenance of cutting-edge technology.

Francis' biggest problem is that he has begun to have difficulty handling the increasingly complicated affairs within the Dawn Principality.

The Principality of Dawn currently has thousands of habitable planets under its jurisdiction, and there are thousands of intelligent races. What’s even more complicated about the Principality of Dawn is that it also includes the Protoss, the Vasaris, and the Geths, which are unique. , and most of the time a race that is disobedient to discipline.

But what really made Francis Underwood almost collapse were two things.

The first thing is the migration of the planet Rendili. The migration of 600 billion people is not 600 billion containers or 600 billion pigs.

First of all, you need to ensure that the planet Rendili will not fall into stagnation or even regression of social development due to a large reduction in population. You absolutely cannot just randomly select people and let them start relocating. It is impossible. Because modern society, especially the social operation of a developed planet like Rendili, can be said to be intricate, perhaps a worker in city A may have his work affect the operation of city B dozens of kilometers away.

Therefore, it is necessary to formulate a plan to divide the relocation batches, who will be relocated first, and who will be relocated second. This batch is not just two batches, but hundreds of thousands! Even if they work hard now, they can only prepare more than 30,000 batches, and future relocation plans can only be handled while moving.

Then we have to organize these people to board the ship, because even if they are divided into batches, the places where these people live may be hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart. It seems simple to let them successfully board the same ship within the same time period. It is also a fatal thing to make.

After boarding the ship, even the latest whale-class passenger spacecraft can only transport tens of thousands of people at a time, and even so, it is also necessary to satisfy tens of thousands of people during the journey of several days. Very difficult. After all, people are not goods and cannot be stuffed with things. You need to take care of their living space and deal with their emotions.

Then there is also the problem at the destination, because now the star gate from the Rendili planet to the Dawn planet has been built, but it is impossible for all those people to be left on the Dawn planet first, right? It still needs to be transferred from the Dawn Planet to other receiving planets. And even if the Star Gate is built, the previous problems and future problems do not mean that they will no longer exist.

Therefore, even after the construction of the star gate is completed, the hyperspace channels from Rendili's planet to other planets are still in operation. But in recent years, the Galactic Empire has gradually tampered with those hyperspace lanes. Although they promised not to block these waterways on the surface, it is okay to instigate pirates to operate in this area from time to time. Then these pirates will make a sudden fortune in the near future and obtain a batch of hyperspace blockers.

After solving so many problems, the core difficulty has just begun - you still have to settle the relocated people. Give them jobs, give them shelter, give them food and drink, give them hope in life... these things are not just words, but real and huge work.

In fact, there is another problem that is easy to ignore, but in fact it is even more troublesome - the 600 billion people on the Rendili planet are not there unchanged. These people will also get old, sick and die. A huge number of babies are born every day, and the relocation of these babies and their families requires re-planning.

So if anyone thinks that the Dawn Principality can solve the problem of relocating the 600 billion people of the planet Rendili in a few years, Francis Underwood really wants to say, how about you come?

The second thing that almost caused Francis Underwood to collapse was the destruction of the Confederacy of Independent Systems three years ago.

Although the administrative core of the Confederation of Independent Systems, the Laxus subplanet, is located in the eastern border of the Milky Way, which is on the opposite side of the Milky Way to the Principality of Dawn, the fall of the Confederation of Independent Systems still has a huge impact.

The Dawn Planet was once the most powerful warlord in the Confederation of Independent Systems, so when the Confederation collapsed, countless planets that had joined the Confederation immediately turned to the Principality of Dawn.

If it was because the Principality of Dawn made peace with the Galactic Empire in advance and withdrew from the war, it would be fine to hate their planets, because these planets would never interact with each other until death.

But the problem is that even now, there are still many planets that were once members of the independent galaxy confederation. After the collapse of the confederation and the death of Count Dooku, they regard the Principality of Dawn as their big brother.

This is very embarrassing.

Of course, for Tang Xiao, it might just be embarrassing, but for Francis Underwood, this is completely like dropping a nuclear bomb on his head!

Because of this situation, the Principality of Dawn was placed in a diplomatic situation where it was inhumane inside and out.

First of all, Francis must carefully handle the relationship with the Galactic Empire. He must not start a war with the Galactic Empire in advance, and must buy enough development time for the Principality of Dawn. Because the Dawn Principality, which is relocating the planet Rendili, is now in a period of pain and trough of development and transformation.

But not starting a war does not mean that the Galactic Empire will not fight you. Overt and covert hostilities in the Galactic Empire amount to as many as eight thousand every year. Although most of these matters are handed over to the National Security Bureau and the Military Intelligence Bureau, when they rise to the diplomatic level, Francis has to repeatedly follow up. The diplomats of the Galactic Empire pushed back. He could not offend the Galactic Empire, but he also had to express his attitude in a neither humble nor arrogant way, so that the Galactic Empire could not act too harshly without restraint.

After that, most of the former member planets of the Confederation of Independent Systems have surrendered to the Galactic Empire, and a small number of them are mainly near the chaotic Mandalorian sector, or are too remote, and the Galactic Empire is too lazy to care about them, so Still neutral.

But among these planets, especially those that regard the Principality of Dawn as their big brother, every time they encounter difficulties or are attacked by the Galactic Empire, they often turn to the Principality of Dawn for help, hoping that the Principality of Dawn can help the Principality of Dawn in the Galactic Empire. Coordinate there.

However, the Principality of Dawn cannot really give up on these planets, because although the title of 'Big Brother' now means endless troubles, if it really starts to fight with the Galaxy Empire in the future, these three words 'Big Brother', then But it really works!

What's more, among such planets, there are two heavyweight names-the planet Semels and the planet Dark (Mon Calamari planet).

Because of their powerful industrial system and shipbuilding system developed with the help of the Principality of Dawn, the planet Samirs surrendered, but it was still focused on by the Galactic Empire, which put huge pressure on them, asking them to dismantle their factories and pay huge sums. taxes. This matter was also solved sideways by the Dawn Principality dispatching agents from the Military Intelligence Department and using many private connections to find several senior officials of the Galactic Empire.

By the way, the Principality of Dawn now has many private relationships in the core circle of the galaxy. In addition to Sonya Tag, the patriarch of the Tag family who came to see Tang Xiao every now and then for treatment and distant communication, there were many relationships accumulated through the spice business. After all, the top spices such as Aura and Diesel Bark are currently monopolized by the Principality of Dawn.

In the eyes of some of the children of the super wealthy families in the core area, it doesn't matter what happens to the Galaxy Empire. Even if the sky falls, it won't affect my ability to smoke spices.

As for the planet Dark, it has been dragged down by the recent intensifying uprising activities on the planet Lotar. The Galactic Empire is using the unrest on the planet Lotar as a reason to require the planet Dark to accept the direct garrison of the Galactic Empire.

These things make Francis Underwood very anxious. Because the two things of maintaining the relationship with the Galactic Empire and helping those planets that were formerly joined by the Confederation of Independent Systems are contradictory! The essence of politics is that your butt determines your head. Your butt is in a different position. How do you deal with these two things at the same time?

Fortunately, the young man who was valued by Tang Xiao and was directly sent to serve in the Prime Minister's Office, Hari Seldon, has lived up to Tang Xiao's expectations. He has grown very quickly and has achieved great success in many things. Already started to stand alone.

Currently, Hari Seldon is in charge of the relocation of Planet Rendili at the Prime Minister's Office. He cooperated with Adele Ulan, the First Lady of the Principality, who has overall command and management of this huge project, to carry out the relocation work in an orderly manner.

In fact, for Francis Underwood, the relocation issue of the Rendili planet and the diplomatic issues of the former Federation of Independent Systems alliance planets are just scabies that may really shake his fundamentals. It is precisely this Hari Seldon!

Whether it was the personal appointment of Hari Seldon by Grand Duke Tang Xiao of the Dawn, or the high praise of First Lady Adele Ulan, Hari Seldon's political influence has increased, especially among those in Lundili. Among the immigrants of the planet, Hari Seldon's reputation is unparalleled.

In this way, Hari Seldon's threat to Francis Underwood is substantial!

With Francis Underwood's political sensitivity, he can almost confirm that Tang Xiao is preparing to let Hari Seldon replace him!

You know, in the current constitution of the Principality of Dawn, there is currently no clear term for a change of leadership! Almost all of the core power institutions in the Principality of Dawn are currently doing their jobs.

In other words, if no other factors exist, Francis Underwood believes that he should remain prime minister, at least until he is 90 years old! After all, Tang Xiao was far from being the Prime Minister of the Empire as he had promised when he woke him up. He was still just the Prime Minister of the Principality.

He still has more than ten years to serve as prime minister, so how can he abdicate at this stage and make way for someone worthy of his post? He is here for the Imperial Prime Minister! Otherwise, why would that dumb Qing Tang Xiao let himself, an old political fox, help him so wholeheartedly 20 years ago?

These things make Francis Underwood very anxious. And under such circumstances, when such a big scandal suddenly broke out in Umbrella Pharmaceutical Group, Francis was immediately ignited like dynamite!

Francis immediately asked Douglas Stamp, his chief of staff and his assistant for 20 years, to directly connect Alexia Ashford's communications.

At this level of the Prime Minister's Office, it is actually clear who the actual power holder is behind the scenes. For the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister's Office, Douglas Stamp was equivalent to a deputy national figure. Of course, he went directly to Alexia, not the puppet outside, Alfred.

The Principality of Liming has always adhered to the principle that companies and businessmen are not allowed to participate in politics, and the constitution has greater tilt and protection for officials and politicians at all levels, with the purpose of checking and balancing those companies. You must know that in this galaxy, there are super corporations that can destroy a planet and wipe out a race with just a single move.

"Dear Chief of Staff, I wonder why you took the initiative to find me?" Alexia asked knowingly.

"Don't think that just because the Grand Duke is not here, you can do whatever you want!" Douglas sternly scolded, "During such a critical time, Umbrella Company has caused such a big problem! This incident on the planet Chalcedon , it was directly hyped as the army opening fire on the people! And what is your answer? Do you want the entire Kingdom of Dawn to take the blame for you?"

"This is naturally impossible. After careful analysis and investigation, the announcement we issued is the actual situation - the spread of infectious disease carriers and the raid by the rebel army. We have also solved this matter very well "Hey, do you want to see the rebel Jedi that we captured?" Alexia said lightly.

"What I'm asking you now is the solution! Don't force us to use administrative measures." Douglas said coldly, "This incident has made His Excellency Francis very unhappy. I advise you that it is best to Take this responsibility well and stabilize the situation on the Chalcedon planet and the boiling public resentment. If you can't do it, we can do it for you."

Alexia snorted coldly, but still gave in. "Umbrella Pharmaceutical Group will handle this incident perfectly and assume corresponding responsibilities."

"This is the best," Douglas said. "In three days, there will be a window for us to make a hyperspace call to the Grand Duke. Based on your response, His Excellency Francis will decide how to report this matter." (This chapter. over)