NFBE Chapter 707: Lord Guilliman, Supreme Commander of the Empire
Chapter 707: Lord Guilliman, Supreme Commander of the Empire
Chapter 707: Lord Guilliman, Supreme Commander of the Empire
Terra, the Imperial Palace, the Hall of Glory.
The new commander-in-chief of the empire, Qingshan Khan, is assigning work tasks to the empire's elders and high lords.
"No matter what strategic deployment or action plan Lord Udo had previously made, it will be invalid from now on."
Fu Qinghai set the tone with his first sentence.
Overturn all the orders issued by Udo.
"Lord Udo may be an excellent politician, just like everyone here. But it is precisely because he is a typical politician that the current corrupt situation has been caused. Politicians' thinking is often too complicated. I mean the complexity in a derogatory sense. They cannot focus on a direct and critical core goal. While he is considering how to fight the orcs, he also has to consider how to split the legion, how to check and balance the Space Marines, and how to suppress other factions... He has so many secondary goals to consider, and all of these secondary goals need to be achieved in the name of achieving the main goal - defeating the orcs. Then the orcs cannot be defeated by us."
Fu Qinghai pointed out the crux of Udo’s problem, which was also the crux of the problem of the High Lords’ Council and the Imperial Senate.
They didn't even think about how the battle moon over Terra was destroyed? It was destroyed by the merging of fourteen Astartes Chapters into two Astartes Legions! The combined power of the entire Legion destroyed the battle moon.
After the victory, Udo's first thought was not how to deal with the next battle moon, but to split up the two legions. What if another battle moon came at this time? What about the battle moons that came later?
No one thinks about these issues.
As Wangerich said, the so-called "checks and balances thinking" or "emperor's mind" that politicians have deeply rooted in their bones is actually a stress response when their own power is threatened, just like a cat that suddenly stands up when it enters an unfamiliar environment. Even if the orc threat is a more direct threat than the possible seizure of power by the Astartes, and a threat with more serious consequences, they must do everything they can to prevent such a thing from happening.
As the saying goes, "pacify the country before fighting foreign enemies."
Chinese people are very familiar with this sentence.
The high lords present were silent.
Today, first, a group of Space Marines pointed their bolters at their heads, then they were verbally humiliated collectively by the commander of this group of Space Marines, then they were verbally humiliated one by one, and then there was another wave of group verbal humiliation... The dignity of those in power was trampled underfoot and rubbed repeatedly, and the High Lords were almost numb at this moment.
Seeing that the high lords had been completely speechless after being PUAed by him, Fu Qinghai finally got to the point.
"Anyone who has even a little experience fighting against orcs will know that, compared to gradually destroying all orcs, decapitation tactics are the most effective tactics against orcs."
"There is a war boss in every orc group. Once the war boss dies, the orcs lose their command center and their morale collapses instantly. They fall into a state of disorder and chaos until they decide on a new war boss through internal fighting."
"There is no specific standard for determining a war boss. If you kill an orc that looks large and well-equipped, and is far superior to the other orcs around it, but you find that the orcs around it do not collapse immediately, then it means that you have only killed an orc leader, and the war boss is another orc that is larger in size and better equipped."
Fu Qinghai first gave these guys some common sense.
Although this seems to be common knowledge in the Warhammer 40K universe, judging from the stupid actions of the merchant ship leader and the Pope of the State Religion, some of them may not know this common sense. Looking back, the high lords were shocked and panicked by the orc ambassador who could speak Gothic, and Fu Qinghai had seen more than one Blood Axe orc who could speak Gothic. In short, never speculate on their level of cognition.
Fu Qinghai raised his thumb and pointed behind him:
“For example, this one.”
The high lords all turned their heads to look.
Three Space Marines came over with a giant head: a hideous green face, a broad and huge mandible, tusks as thick as ivory, bloodthirsty red eyes and cunning pointed ears, which seemed a little small compared to the huge size of the whole head.
"God, this is, this is..."
The high lords were immediately horrified.
"How can there be such a big orc?"
Other imperial officials also looked panic-stricken.
"Yeah, this guy is a beast."
Fu Qinghai nodded and said calmly:
"At least it's... one of the beasts."
The entire Glory Hall was suddenly in uproar.
"What did you say? You killed the beast?"
Veritus had just recovered from his first shock.
"Wait, you said it was one of the beasts?"
Immediately, I fell into shock for the second time.
The news of the rescue of the Endin hive world was passed back to Terra through the Inquisition's spies in other star fields, so Veritus knew that the White Scars under the leadership of Qingshan Khan had previously conquered a battle moon.
This news could not be concealed at all, as the entire surface of the hive witnessed the actions of the Space Marines, and a large number of human prisoners were rescued from within the battle moon.
However, no human prisoners were present during the battle in the innermost part of the moon, so the Grand Master of the Inquisition was not aware that Qingshan Khan also killed a beast during the battle.
"Yes, there is more than one beast."
Fu Qinghai's tone was calm:
"Like there's more than one battle moon."
"I am always used to anticipating the enemy, so that I have enough room to deal with unexpected situations. However, you all seem to be blindly optimistic, naively thinking that you can sit back and relax, and that the human empire is invincible. I have to say that this is also one of the reasons for the current disastrous situation."
Fu Qinghai took every opportunity to mock Lord Gao and insisted on carrying out persistent and continuous PUA.
"That's enough. The shock is enough for now."
Fu Qinghai raised his hand and gestured to keep quiet.
The Glory Hall, which was filled with discussions, suddenly became quiet.
Fu Qinghai raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
It seems that the previous efforts to establish authority were quite effective.
Sometimes training people is not much different from training dogs.
"You don't have much time to slowly be shocked and try to digest this fact. Let me make it short."
Fu Qinghai looked around at everyone:
"First, we must withdraw Udo's decision to disband the two legions. The White Scars and the Last Wall will not disband. Secondly, I will tell you now: the orcs' base camp is in Ullanor. The most powerful beast, the beast among beasts, is also in Ullanor - yes, you heard it right, it is the 'Ullanor' that comes to your mind at this moment, the Ullanor that was conquered during the Great Crusade, and the location of the first military parade. Next, we will gather all the troops we can, launch an expedition to Ullanor, and complete the ultimate decapitation of the orcs!"
"The orcs' base camp is in Ullanor?"
Veritus frowned and asked:
"What is the source of your intelligence?"
"You don't have to worry about this."
Fu Qinghai waved his hand and said:
"While we are gathering our forces, the Navy will send reconnaissance ships to conduct reconnaissance around the Ullanor system. Then you will know whether what I said is true or false."
After Fu Qinghai finished speaking, he turned and looked at Lan Song.
The High Lord Admiral nodded.
"After the battle moon was destroyed, the psychic disorder in the warp should have subsided? Has the call for help been sent? Which troops responded to Terra's call for assembly?"
Fu Qinghai then looked at the abbot of Xingyu Court.
"The four founding chapters of the Astartes have responded to the call for assistance and are on their way: the Ultramarines, the Blood Angels, the Space Wolves, and the Dark Angels."
Abdullah Anwar immediately replied:
"According to the news they sent back, while we were fighting the battle moon over Terra, other star regions were also fighting. A battle moon invaded the 500 worlds of Ultramar and was destroyed by the Ultramarines and other forces from the 500 worlds. Another battle moon descended over Baal and was also destroyed by the Blood Angels, but the Blood Angels suffered heavy losses and could only send three companies to support Terra."
The Five Hundred Worlds have always had a large number of soldiers and generals. In addition to the Ultramarines, there are five Mechanicus Forge Worlds and several fortress worlds where Imperial Guard regiments are stationed. The ruling power of these planets all belongs to the Ultramarines, which can gather a huge military force on their own. Otherwise, how could they have the confidence to establish the Second Empire.
The Blood Angels are different from the wealthy Blue Sons and Blue Grandsons. The Blood Angels themselves are a standard Codex Chapter. If Baal does not recall the daughter chapters from other places, the Blood Angels are alone with their thousand Space Marines and chapter servants to deal with a battle moon. Even with the support of the chapter's home planet Baal, the battle will be very difficult and heavy losses are expected.
"Um……"
Fu Qinghai nodded slowly, and then asked:
"Are these the only four? How will the other chapters respond?"
"The other chapters have their own combat missions and cannot get away."
Anwa replied with some difficulty in his voice.
"Humph."
Fu Qinghai smiled when he heard this and said nothing more.
Whether they really had a combat mission and couldn't get away, or they didn't want to rescue Holy Terra, I'm afraid only these regiments themselves knew. It was difficult to say whether this matter was right or wrong, because Terra was indeed a bunch of useless people.
“Are there any other questions from other departments?”
Fu Qinghai glanced at the other high lords.
"The Inquisition has information to present for review."
Veritus handed over a stack of papers.
Fu Qinghai took the pile of parchment and started to look through it. There were vermilion marks on the upper left corner of these documents. As far as he knew, this was the highest level of confidentiality in the Tribunal. Usually only the judge who wrote the intelligence and the person to whom the intelligence was presented could read it.
These files contain blurry photos of a tall and majestic figure from behind. The pixels are too low to make out the details. If the light and shadow are not aberrant, it would be a dark green figure from behind, and one could vaguely see that the person was using a hammer as a weapon. In addition, there are some huge footprints found on the battlefield, as well as the orc corpses and the terrifying gaps on the damaged vehicles, which are attached as supplementary materials.
"Koldra is a mining world located in the Murcia Sector of the Solar Segmentum. It is currently being invaded by orks."
Veritus explained:
"Our people have collected some special clues on Cordra, and all the evidence points to one suspicion..."
"No doubt, it's Vukan."
Fu Qinghai put down the parchment and said firmly:
"While waiting for the other Astartes Chapters to arrive on Terra, I will lead all the White Scars Chapters to Caldera to eliminate the invading Orks there and bring back the Primarch. His return is crucial to winning this war."
"Wait. You mean, Vulkan…Vulkan?"
Lan Song leaned forward with a serious expression and asked in a low voice.
"Why not?"
Fu Qinghai pushed the document back to the Grand Master of the Tribunal and asked:
"Is there a second Primarch named Vorkan in this universe?"
At this critical moment of the beast invasion, it is suspected that a loyal Primarch is about to return to the human empire, which is great news in any case. However, judging from the complicated expressions on the faces of the high lords present, they do not seem to think so.
Fu Qinghai doesn't care what they think.
Fu Qinghai looked around at the high lords present, and it seemed that no one wanted to speak, so he finally turned his attention to a green holographic projection at the end of the long conference table. This was the only high lord who came to the meeting in the form of a holographic projection rather than in person, the Mars Forge Commander Kubik.
During the entire meeting, from the time Fu Qinghai launched a coup, dismissed Udo, announced the seizure of power, controlled the media, occupied the palace, and angrily rebuked the ministers... to now when he began to arrange work tasks as the commander-in-chief of the empire, the Lord of Mars watched coldly and said nothing, just observing and evaluating silently.
"Dear Commander Kubik."
Fu Qinghai looked at Kubik with a smile:
"Do you have anything to add?"
Kubik is indeed the most special High Lord. Judging from the power he controls and the size of the army directly under his command, none of the High Lords present here can be compared with him. The Red Star is too powerful.
Even if the Lord of Mars came to Terra in his real body instead of a holographic projection, people would not be able to tell whether it was his real body or just a large communication servitor that imitated the image of a Forge Master. Moreover, among all the Forge Masters of Mars, only a few could come to Terra to attend meetings in person - because some Forge Masters were too big, much bigger than the Primarchs, and there was no place in the huge palace with so many buildings that could accommodate the Forge Master's body.
Kubik's projection looked at Fu Qinghai deeply. The sudden coup that broke out in the Hall of Glory not only shocked the imperial officials of Terra, but also shocked the thinking cluster composed of tens of thousands of technical priests on Mars, and even almost fell into data chaos. Because this means that all the previous analysis and conclusions of the thinking cluster on Qingshan Khan, such as "this is a very standard and typical Astartes war captain" and "he only cares about military issues"... all, all are wrong, completely wrong.
The Martian staff made a collective misjudgment.
Qingshan Khan is not only a Chapter Master but also a politician. He is also a shrewd and secretive politician. Once he decides to launch a coup, he will act swiftly and decisively without any delay. His methods are ruthless and interlocking, leaving no time for his opponents to react or counterattack. The huge Terra political arena was overturned by him within a few hours.
Kubik didn't want to talk now.
Because any of his comments at this moment, combined with his previous judgments and conclusions, made him look like a clown in front of the other subjects of Mars. He didn't care much about who would be the "commander-in-chief of the empire", Udo or Qingshan, he only cared about his "great experiment", but the pride and self-esteem of the Lord of Mars made him not want to face Qingshan Khan's smug face.
But now Qingshan Khan took the initiative to ask him questions.
The Martian Forge Commander had to answer again.
"You said everything I was going to say."
Kubik said expressionlessly:
"What else can I say?"
No one present knew what this inexplicable conversation between Kubik and Fu Qinghai meant, but Fu Qinghai himself knew the deeper meaning that the Mars Forging Commander wanted to express.
Wangorich told Fu Qinghai that his Callidus assassins found more than 10,000 orc corpses on Mars, and he didn't know what Mars wanted to do with these corpses. Fu Qinghai speculated based on the original novel plot told by Vera that Mars analyzed the genetic data of these 10,000 orcs and may have deduced that these orcs all originated from Ullanor.
Normally, after knowing this information, according to the usual character of the Casting Commander, he would definitely not choose to make it public immediately. Instead, he would wait and see with this key intelligence, observe the progress of the war, and then decide when to release this intelligence to maximize the interests of Mars, and perhaps use this intelligence to achieve other political goals.
But now it was directly pointed out by Fu Qinghai.
Fu Qinghai told everyone directly:
Stop guessing, the beast is in Ullanor.
This made the casting commander feel very depressed and passive.
I found this out through analyzing orc genes.
How did you know?
"I hope Mars will be part of this expedition."
Fu Qinghai looked at Kubik and said bluntly.
"Mars suffered heavy losses on the Battle Moon."
Kubik's face was still stiff and expressionless. At this moment, he was too lazy to even simulate any human emotion, because continuing this behavior would make all his previous performances even more ridiculous. Since they had seen through each other, there was no need to act anymore.
"The intelligence control army entrusted to you was almost completely wiped out."
"Do we need to review that battle?"
Fu Qinghai spread his hands and asked in surprise:
"Isn't it because you didn't follow my orders that Mars suffered heavy losses? There's no need for us to beat around the bush here, right? Everyone knows why. Your cybernetics legion was never truly 'handed over to me', and your vassal knight families also ignored my orders. Aren't all of this your own fault? Don't you have any reflection at all?"
The expression on Kubik's face became even more rigid.
The projected image even flickers a bit.
"I will consider whether to join the expedition."
Kubik threw down this sentence and prepared to end the conversation.
"You should think about it carefully."
Fu Qinghai reminded meaningfully:
"But you don't have much time to think about it."
Why don't you wait until Wokan comes back before considering it?
You'll see if a Primarch who can be resurrected infinitely will come to Mars and smash your machine head with a hammer.
Kubik's projection went out.
Fu Qinghai stood up, left his seat and walked out.
Passing through the intersection of light and shadow of the magnificent stone door of the Hall of Glory, he looked back at all the imperial officials in the hall. They were still sitting in their original seats with a sympathetic look on their faces, but he only looked at one of them, the Grand Master of the Assassin's Court, Wangorichi, and then turned and left without looking back.
He would leave a company behind to control the outer city area of the palace, and eventually most of the high wall would follow him to Cordra. All the high lords were released and returned to their respective jobs. During this coup, Fu Qinghai did not kill any of the high lords, including Udo.
Just now, the Space Marines had guns pointed at their heads. Now that they have returned to their own territory, will the high lords continue to obey Qingshan Khan's orders? They don't know that until this moment, the most dangerous guy on Terra has not made a move.
Fu Qinghai was certain that these weak and incompetent high lords would not dare to cause trouble while he was away to welcome back Wokan - if they really had that courage, they would not have panicked in front of the orc ambassador.
Friends who often launch coups know that a coup is different from an election. It is not a peaceful transfer of power, but a complete break. As the saying goes, "If you don't cut the grass at the root, it will grow again in the spring breeze." In the real world, coups are often followed by large-scale liquidations. Those who kill them will face counterattacks, and Fu Qinghai did not kill any high lords.
Fu Qinghai couldn't hold on to his position as the commander-in-chief of the empire forever, unless he wanted to work himself to death like Gao Zhi Fandier or Drakan Wangorich did in the later years of their rule. Without the assistance of artificial intelligence, the human empire's vast territory and complex situation could only be handed over to a Primarch - and a Primarch who specialized in governance, and no one else could handle it.
Fu Qinghai will eventually step down. Doesn't he worry that his regiment will be liquidated after he abdicates?
In fact, Fu Qinghai is not worried at all.
That's right, a coup is a complete break, with no room for compromise. If Fu Qinghai doesn't go after the High Lords now, they will go after Fu Qinghai later. But Fu Qinghai also has to consider: Is his coup setting a precedent? Will other Space Marines follow suit in the future? If so, should he set a bottom line? For example: Qingshan Khan seized power but didn't kill the High Lords.
The High Lord will be killed eventually.
It's just a matter of sooner or later.
But it was not Fu Qinghai who did it.
He has already chosen his assassin.
…………