The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2139. The Beginning and End of the Trade Alliance (VI)

It is impossible to calculate how many hyperspace channels there are in the Milky Way.

But one thing is certain, the Trade Federation controls far more hyperspace channels than the Galactic Empire. Even the star maps in the hands of the Jedi Order are not so complete.

If all known routes in the Milky Way are calculated as 100%, the Trade Federation controls at least 85% of the hyperspace routes. The Galactic Empire inherited the database of the Galactic Republic, and only controls 50% of the routes at most.

The star maps that the Jedi Order once had controlled about 70% of the routes. On the other hand, Count Dooku of the Confederacy of Independent Systems controlled about 75% of the routes. Because he not only obtained data from the Trade Federation, but also obtained a large amount of navigation data from the Jedi Order, and deleted some of the routes controlled by the Jedi Order. Of course, the Galactic Empire did not get the data of both.

In fact, this is also an important reason why the current Galactic Empire's control over the Outer Rim of the Milky Way is difficult to compare with the original plot timeline. You must know that in the original plot, after completely destroying the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Jedi Order, the Galactic Empire controlled at least 75% or even more of the routes.

Although the Principality of Dawn is currently the master of the Trade Alliance, the number of waterways that the Trade Alliance has handed over to Tang Xiao is not large. The Principality of Dawn controls about 65% of the waterways.

In the original story, after the Trade Federation was annexed by the Galactic Empire, many Neimoidians fled all the way to the unknown star region. This alone shows how rich the shipping routes controlled by the Trade Federation are.

Even the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order's overseas exploration plans that wanted to set foot in unknown star regions ended in disastrous failure, while the remnants of the Trade Federation were able to flee directly into unknown star regions.

As for the Galactic Empire, of the 35% difference between the number of routes they control and the Trade Alliance, about 25% of them know the approximate location, which is not completely unknown. However, to truly open the route, it is necessary to send probes to detect and verify, and then recalculate the navigation data, which takes a lot of time.

As for the other 10% or so of the routes, the Galactic Empire doesn’t even know about it!

Therefore, this comparison can make it clear how much of a blow the Trade Federation has dealt to the Galactic Empire after it directly tore apart its relationship and cut off all navigation services! Moreover, the Trade Federation did not do this even during the Clone Wars.

During the Clone Wars, the Trade Federation provided navigation services to both warring parties. Almost all navigation robots used by both warring parties were connected to the Trade Federation's navigation network.

And now, all of this has been interrupted!

After the navigation service was cut off, the most direct consequence was that at least one-fifth of the star systems in the Outer Ring Star Region, which the Galactic Empire now nominally ruled, were no longer accessible! This meant that these star systems were out of the Empire's control!

Not only that, the reconstruction plan of the 14th Army, which had been put on the agenda before, was interrupted again when it was about to put things right. The 14th Army's capital planet Ryloth once again broke away from the control of the Galactic Empire, and a large-scale uprising broke out among the Twi'leks, and the Empire couldn't even send a fleet to suppress it!

Uloda, the original governor of the 14th Army, was impeached and investigated after a corruption scandal was exposed. However, under the planning of Padmé Amidala, the leader behind the rebellion, the Twi'lek uprising unexpectedly raised the banner of supporting Uloda, making the situation of the uprising more complicated.

Then, Vice Admiral Jan Dodonna, who had secretly joined the Rebellion, took over the important task of temporarily rebuilding the 14th Army and coordinating the arrival of the new Governor. In order to delay the selection of the new Governor, Padmé Amidala sent Senator Fache to compete for the position, using various means to try to seize the position of Governor of the 14th Army. Although it was doomed to fail, it was no problem to muddy the waters.

After several months of struggle, Fache has almost lost the competition, Uloda has been convicted, and the new governor of the 14th Army has been confirmed. He is just about to take office to replace Lieutenant General Jean Dodenne and become the official governor.

As a result, the all-out war between the Galactic Empire and the Trade Federation once again prevented the 14th Army's governor from taking office. So according to the previous arrangement, Lieutenant General Jan Dodenna continued to serve as acting governor.

  In other words, the entire 14th Army, which had been half rebuilt, was now completely under the control of the rebels!

The location of the 14th Army is very remote. With transportation temporarily cut off, Lieutenant General Jan Dodonna only needs to report safety to the Empire regularly, saying that he has suppressed the Twi'lek uprising and everything is fine.

  But will the Galactic Empire care about this?

They won't care! Because Palpatine is now insane!

The order he gave to Darth Vader was that it didn't matter that the Outer Rim regions were out of control, they just needed to be 'reconquered' once.

Reconquer! This is equivalent to reoccupying these planets by force. What will happen during the occupation? Massacre, plunder, destruction...

However, these planets were once part of the Galactic Empire! They were their own people! What happened now was just a temporary interruption of traffic!

But Palpatine didn't care about that at all. All he wanted was wealth, more wealth! As long as all this wealth was concentrated in the core circle, he didn't care how many people in the outer ring would die in the war!

  It can even be said that the more people die, the wailing of the dead will make his dark side force stronger and more crazy!

Of course, before "reconquering" those outer ring star regions, the first thing that needs to be dealt with is still the Trade Federation!

Under the leadership of Darth Vader, the main fleet of the Galactic Empire's Third Army has been deployed to the core planets of the Core Circle Trade Alliance.

The main planets of the Trade Federation in the core circle include Neimoidia, the home planet of the Neimoidians; the three wealth worlds - Cato-Nemoidia, Deco-Nemoidia, and Kru-Nemoidia; the industrial world Balmora. In addition, there is the less important planet Rosha and the Vulpter near the core of the Milky Way.

Among them, the most important planets are Cato-Neimoidia, the world of wealth, Balmora, the industrial world, and the mother planet Neimoidia. According to their importance, the huge fleet began to blockade these planets respectively.

According to Darth Vader's deployment, he gathered a large number of troops on the planets of Rosa and Vulture, preparing to start with the easy ones and then move on to the difficult ones, gradually clipping the wings of the Trade Federation. (End of this chapter)