Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1550: Chapter 581: Thank You All

It’s one thing for all those research institutes to have their supplies cut off, but once the stealth coating production plants shut down, that’s basically eternal damnation—an economic collapse is just days away.

"The only good news right now is probably that Your Lordship the Earl’s prestige is high enough that even with living standards plummeting, it won’t affect public order across the various Feudal and Feudal Star Systems too much. But the military Strength development Plan you set at the start will likely have to be completely halted. We’ll have to find a way to liquidate some assets, grit our teeth through the pain, and adjust the industrial structure if we want any chance of getting through this."

The head of the Commerce Department reported it like that.

Ren Zhong listened and felt neither joy nor sorrow, merely said, "Stick to the original course without wavering. I’ll figure out the energy problem."

Once he finished all these ceremonial formalities, Ren Zhong finally, for once, had some free time.

He went back to the private office in the Red Peak Earl Mansion and had Sun Ai open the three-dimensional projection Star Map.

The scale of this Star Map was quite large; it encompassed the entire Nanxiang Star Cluster.

On the Star Map, there were tens of thousands of transport fleet arrays that were not connected to the Empire Super Network, instead using silicon-chip computers, flying through the lattice-like Fold Jump Subspace Channels.

Between four years at the longest and one year at the shortest in the past, these transport ships had already departed from the Shattered Star Ring, entered the nearest Fold Jump Subspace Channel entrance, and then headed separately toward hundreds of Feudal Star Systems.

Nearly half of those fleets were converging from all directions on a single point—a huge Planet System piled high with garbage stars, which Ren Zhong had renamed the Liao Yuan Star System.

One month from now, all the reserve energy under the Red Peak Earl Mansion’s banner across its territories would be exhausted, and these fleets would arrive the day before everything ran dry—perfect docking, cutting it right to the last second.

By then, Ren Zhong would give Duke Wenle and Liu An, and everyone who took the chance to kick him when he was down, a colossal surprise.

After confirming that the Plan’s progress was all going smoothly, Ren Zhong zoomed the Star Map in onto the Liao Yuan Star System.

Looking at the massive garbage Star Ring encircling the outermost asteroid belt of the Liao Yuan Star System, even someone as steady as Ren Zhong couldn’t help grinning and chuckling.

"We’ve struck gold. This time it’s the real deal. With this much metal, I can expand the fleet’s scale a thousandfold in no time! As long as we go all-out, I can build a Red Peak Army five times the size of the Marquis Zhenjiang Mansion’s fleet before the great war hits!"

"When Marquis Zhenjiang Jin Shi wakes up from her frozen sleep and sees this, she’ll probably be scared stupid."

"The family foundation she spent five hundred thousand years accumulating, I’ve settled in forty. Five times! Truly worthy of a Duke with real power—the garbage she’s piled up is this much."

"Duke Wenle Ivan Romanov is really such a wonderfully good person. A good person! I thank you all!"

Ren Zhong then checked the population status of the Red Blade Clan’s registered citizens and unregistered citizens.

Mm, very good. 1.1 trillion.

At the current rate of population growth, by the time war comes, the total population can reach at least five trillion, with more than four trillion of them adults.

On the premise that everyone receives basic military training, by then the all-soldier Red Blade Clan will become a decisive Strength in the ultra-large-scale interstellar war spreading over three Star Domains.

Even if things really reach the worst-case scenario—Far Border Star Domain, Long River Star Domain, and Jade Plate Star Domain all falling—the Red Blade Clan can still advance or retreat at will.

Ren Zhong let out a long breath.

These more than ten years of painstaking plotting.

The years of bitter endurance by the smuggling trio Tang Tu, Mao Jin, and Wu You, risking their lives—it was all worth it no matter how you looked at it.

After that, Ren Zhong sent a message to the trio still in the Liao Yuan Star System, ordering them to enter frozen sleep at once and return to Red Blade Star.

In the video call, Ren Zhong looked at this trio who in his memories were middle-aged men but were now either completely gray-haired, half-bald with a shiny crown, or faces full of wrinkles, and felt a surge of emotion. "You’ve worked hard."

Tang Tu, Mao Jin, and Wu You had still not recovered from the massive blow of the Red Blade Clan falling into crisis because of him. The moment they saw Ren Zhong being so considerate in the video, they all burst into tears, consumed by guilt.

Ren Zhong had no choice but to comfort them instead: "You did this because you took my orders. How is any of this your fault? Is it wrong that you executed my instructions to the letter? Don’t be sad. Just come back in peace. Everything is under my control. You three have earned great merit over these fifteen years. Go rest in sleep first; once you arrive at Red Blade Star and wake up, you’ll naturally know what happened."

After settling the trio, Ren Zhong then received a call from Marvell Louis.

Marvill got straight to the point: "Brother Ren Zhong, I already know what’s going on in your clan. A lot of people are waiting for the Red Blade Clan to fall into a massive crash. What’s your plan?"

Ren Zhong figured he still had to put on a bit of an act, so he just sighed and said, "We’ll block soldiers with generals and floodwaters with earth. For now, I can only take things one step at a time."