The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2130: The Empire’s Decision

This is Palpatine's seventh year as Emperor.

As he ruled the Galactic Empire for a longer time, his temperament became more gloomy and terrifying. He no longer wore the gorgeous dress he wore when he was a senator or speaker. Instead, he wore a black cloak almost all the time.

Not only that, the half of his face exposed under the hood of the cloak became more and more distorted, with pale wrinkles all over his face. The sinister smile and the yellow and sharp teeth exposed from his mouth made people feel that he was more like a monster than a human being...

Everyone present looked at Palpatine nervously. Even powerful figures like Dunn Wessex and Wilhuff Tarkin did not dare to be negligent in the slightest.

Over the past few years, Palpatine has become more and more brutal, more suspicious, and more irritable, and no one can know what he is thinking anymore. He may seem to be in a good mood in the last second, and he may kill people directly in the next second.

The decisions he made became more and more extreme and cruel. More than once, he issued orders to carry out inhumane massacres on planets that dared to resist, and to hang captured rebel leaders in the reconquered cities, watching them slowly die in their struggle.

Darth Vader stood behind Palpatine. His tall figure carried an infinite sense of oppression, and his heavy breathing continued to strike everyone's heart like a sledgehammer.

Palpatine did not speak. He just scanned the crowd with his eyes that emitted a terrifying golden light, again and again, until they began to tremble with fear. Then he slowly said, "Grand Duke of Dawn, Darth Malthael... is missing."

His voice was twisted and greasy, and he did not address Tang Xiao, but used the Sith title. People who knew Palpatine knew that every time he did this, it showed that his attention was on Darth Malthael himself, not the Principality of Dawn.

But compared to all these, none of them was as shocking as the information he shared.

Black Star suddenly raised his head, "Darth Malthael is missing? Your Majesty, is this certain?" As powerful users of the dark side of the Force, he, Katang and Darth Vader were the only three people present who remained unmoved by Palpatine's pressure.

"I can no longer sense his presence in the Force..." Palpatine said slowly, "His disgusting aura has always been in the world of the Force, making me angry and wanting to kill him all the time! But now... his Force has disappeared."

"Is it because he is in a relatively closed place, Your Majesty? According to our intelligence, Tang Xiao has been in an unknown star region in recent months... The Principality of Dawn should have encountered trouble there." Wilhuff Tarkin said.

"Humph! Stupid guy! How can a mortal like you understand the secrets of the Force!" Palpatine snorted coldly, "I said he is missing, and he is missing! It has nothing to do with where he is."

Black Hole also said: "Even the hyperspace turbulence cannot block the induction of the Force. Even time and space, the Force can leave traces in them. Since Your Majesty can no longer sense the existence of Darth Malthael, there are only two possibilities for him - the first is that he is dead, and the second is that he is in a place where even the Force cannot penetrate. Either way, it means that Darth Malthael will not appear in a short time, or he will never appear."

Supreme Dark Prophet Kadan laughed sinisterly, "Without Darth Malthael, the threat from the Principality of Dawn is immediately reduced by more than half. This is our best chance... We should send troops immediately and wipe out the Principality of Dawn in one fell swoop! Arrest every one of their top leaders, hold them on public trial, and then publicly execute them! Hehehehe."

Palpatine also laughed triumphantly, "Hahahaha! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Assemble our fleet immediately! Launch an attack on the Principality of Dawn in the shortest possible time!"

However, after he said this, everyone else present fell silent. Almost everyone kept their heads down and did not dare to speak.

"I'm telling you, send troops immediately!" Palpatine said coldly, his voice extremely gloomy. He was obviously very dissatisfied with the current atmosphere.

In this almost stagnant atmosphere, Sate Pestage, the highest advisor of the Imperial Advisory Group, the leader of the Imperial Loyalty Committee, and the Imperial Grand Vizier, mustered up the courage to answer: "Your Majesty... Where do we have a fleet that can attack now..."

The conference hall fell into a terrible silence once again. The air around them seemed to freeze and everyone found it very difficult to breathe.

Everyone could feel Palpatine's brewing anger in this silence.

Black Hole was smart after all. He snorted coldly and said in a stern voice: "The size of our navy now exceeds that of the Galactic Republic during the war by more than three times! We have more than 10,000 capital ships at hand, and now you say we don't have a fleet?"

He said this to give Sat a way out and let him explain quickly. Otherwise, if Palpatine asked, he might really kill people! In that case, Sat-Pestachi, with his long list of titles, might not be able to save his life!

Sat-Pestachi gave Black Hole a grateful look and said quickly, "Recently, the resistance forces in the Empire have intensified, and the reconstruction of the 14th Army has been stagnant. There are even rumors that the planet Rylos is secretly brewing a revolution. In addition, a civil war has also broken out on the planet Geonosis, which has even affected the construction progress of DS-1. We have sent out almost all of our warships."

"So you want to tell me that we are just going to sit here and wait for this great opportunity of Darth Malthael's disappearance?" Palpatine asked gloomily, "Then what's the point of me keeping you bunch of losers? Last time you told me that you still had 1000 capital ships, but now there is not a single one! Where did I spend the huge military expenditure!"

The leader of the New Order Protection Committee, Aixin-Il-Raz, also said: "There are indeed many planets that have rebelled recently, and pirates are becoming increasingly rampant, which has caused our control over the Outer Ring Star Region and even some of the Middle Ring Star Region to decline. In order to maintain the operation of the empire, we can only send more fleets to suppress them. With all due respect, considering the current territory of the empire, our fleet is still too small..."

Black Hole, who is also the director of the Imperial Intelligence Agency, also said: "I have stepped up intelligence infiltration into the Principality of Dawn. It is obvious that they have strengthened their intelligence deployment after Tang Xiao disappeared. I strongly suspect that a considerable part of the rebellion is the work of the Principality of Dawn behind the scenes. The purpose is to disperse our forces and prevent us from taking action against them." "I need answers!" Palpatine roared, and he even brought the power of the dark side. This roar shocked everyone present, "Darth Malthael is missing now! And we must take this opportunity to destroy the Principality of Dawn in one fell swoop! I only need to hear a time! When-when..."

"I think... we can plan a strike against the Fourth Group of the Northern Border of the Principality of Dawn. First, we can attack the planet Od-Mantell and rebuild the Eighth Army. Then we can directly threaten the planet Mulinster and seek a fleet decisive battle. In this way, we will be able to surround the planet Mygeeto after occupying the planet Mulinster." Dunn Wessex said.

He is the King of the North, so of course he hopes that the Empire's offensive will be launched from his side. In this way, he will have more power and military strength.

Sat-Pestachi quickly agreed, "That should work. As long as we can occupy the planet Mykito, we can get the huge amount of wealth that the separatists of the Interstellar Banking Association have stolen before. This will greatly alleviate the current financial crisis of the empire. As long as we have enough money, we will be able to expand our fleet faster!"

Wilhuff Tarkin said coldly, "You can't even deal with the Geth that are ravaging the North, and you still want to send a fleet deep into the hinterland to attack the planet Mygeeto? When did you overestimate your abilities so much? Dunn Wessex."

He turned to Palpatine and said seriously, "Your Majesty, the rebellions that are happening one after another now are because the Star Destroyers are not deterrent enough. The plan to rebuild the Imperial Navy proposed by Dunn-Wessex was wrong... We need absolute power and absolute deterrence like DS-1. Only when the construction of DS-1 is completed as soon as possible, by then, no one in the Empire will dare to resist, and all our warships will be freed up and used as mobile forces."

He raised a finger and said, "Fear is the best way to rule the galaxy. If there is still rebellion, it can only be because fear is not enough. And the DS-1 is the greatest fear in this galaxy! It is more effective than ten thousand star destroyers."

This time, Palpatine interrupted Tarkin rudely. He said gloomily: "Can DS-1 be deployed now to destroy the planet Dawn? If not, what's the point now?..."

He looked around at everyone again and said coldly: "If you can't come up with a plan, then let me come up with one. Within one month, gather at least 4000 battleships and launch an attack! I don't care what the reason is, no matter what those battleships are doing, call them back!"

"Your Majesty! This..." Sartre-Pestachi hurriedly tried to dissuade this crazy idea, "This is inappropriate..."

  If 4000 battleships were really transferred back, I'm afraid at least half of the empire's regions would start to become independent! If things go wrong, it's not impossible for a second independent galaxy confederation to emerge from those places!

Once these planets begin to seek independence, the 4000 battleships sent out will immediately become rootless and will be defeated due to lack of supplies.

By then, will the Galactic Empire still be the Galactic Empire?

At this moment, an extremely low and dull voice suddenly sounded, "Trade Alliance."

Everyone immediately looked towards the source of the voice - Darth Vader, who had been standing motionless behind Palpatine! The most powerful general of the Galactic Empire, Palpatine's apprentice and confidant.

"Hehehe... Tell me what your plan is." Palpatine let out a twisted laugh.

"Declare the Trade Federation treason and all their activities illegal. Then attack the planets controlled by the Trade Federation, including Cato-Neimoidia and Balmora-Neimoidia, and completely wipe them out from the Empire." Darth Vader said coldly, "We will obtain the huge funds and resources of the Trade Federation, and at the same time, it will deter other forces that have ill intentions against the Empire."

The expressions of the people present became serious; they were thinking about this matter seriously.

But this matter is indeed not easy to handle.

Although the Trade Federation was one of the main core members of the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the previous Clone Wars, in fact, the Trade Federation still does business with the Galactic Republic, and they always insist that Newt Gunray is only a radical part of the Trade Federation, and the Trade Federation is actually loyal to the Galactic Republic.

In fact, even during the Clone Wars, the Trade Federation did this, serving both sides of the war. The wealthy Neimoidians also contributed a lot of income to the Galactic Republic's finances, making it difficult for the Galactic Republic and later the Galactic Empire to deal with them.

  The key to the matter actually lies in the Principality of Dawn!

Because in the original plot, Nute Gunray, who was bewitched by Palpatine, surrendered directly at the end of the war. He shut down all the combat robots and waited foolishly for Palpatine to fulfill his promise. But what he waited for was Darth Vader's blazing lightsaber.

At that time, the Galactic Empire had no enemies at all and the war was over, so it could do whatever it wanted. Palpatine directly declared several major corporate giants, including Newt Gunray, as top war criminals, and then directly plundered and confiscated all their industries and wealth in the name of treason, bringing the first huge financial income to the empire.

But now it is different, the Principality of Dawn is still there, and for the Trade Union, a company that is betting on both sides, if the pressure on them is too great, they may just run to the Principality of Dawn. Just like the Interstellar Banking Association before, the split of the Interstellar Banking Association was a fatal blow to the finances of the Galactic Republic.

  And if the Trade Alliance strikes again, the blow will definitely not be small!

Because the Trade Federation has monopolized the logistics and transportation industry in the entire galaxy for thousands of years, once they have problems, transportation in many places within the Galactic Empire will be paralyzed.

  Once transportation and logistics are paralyzed, famine and shortage of supplies will occur on many planets, and then more rebellions will follow!

But... Palpatine thought again...

Seems to work! (End of this chapter)