The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

2133. The Beginning and End of the Trade Federation (Part 3)

Therefore, the Trade Federation was once the largest economic entity in the entire galaxy, or at least the second largest. Moreover, the Trade Federation controls the lifeline of the Outer Rim. It can be said that the Galactic Republic's rule over the Outer Rim was actually achieved through the Trade Federation.

So they, like the Interstellar Banking Association, became the only two entities that could bet on both sides during the Clone Wars without being liquidated - because these two entities are too large, one monopolizing the financial industry of the galaxy, and the other monopolizing the transportation industry in the Central and Outer Rim of the galaxy.

Compared with these two, other entities such as corporate alliances and commercial guilds are actually completely incomparable to them.

It is precisely because of this that the Trade Federation was used by Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious to become the fuse that ignited the many conflicts in the Central and Outer Rim of the galaxy.

So now when Darth Vader proposed to take action against the Trade Federation, everyone would react in this way.

Because this proposal is both feasible and infeasible.

The reason why it is feasible is that the headquarters of the Trade Union is located on the planet Balmorra, and the Neimoidians' home planet Neimoidia, as well as their important colonies and wealth worlds Cato-Neimoidia, Deco-Neimoidia, and Cru-Neimoidia are all located in the core circle of the Milky Way.

In other words, the Galactic Republic can attack these places with a single move.

The headquarters of the Trade Union was not actually in Balmorra at first, but in the Outer Rim Star Region. Later, their strength grew, so they set up their headquarters on the planet Coruscant. Then, as the Separatism grew stronger and the war was about to break out, the Trade Union, which had been controlled by the Neimoidians, moved its headquarters to the Neimoidians' wealth world Cato-Neimoidia on the grounds of protecting property.

However, during the war, because Newt Gunray stood on the side of the Separatists, the Galactic Republic decided to sanction the Trade Union. In addition, the fact that Cato-Neimoidia had once sheltered the Plague Titan battleship led by Separatist General Severance Tann made the Trade Union feel that Cato-Neimoidia was not so safe.

Therefore, they finally moved the Trade Union headquarters to the largest, most developed and most advanced industrial world in their core circle - Balmora. Therefore, this place was once called Balmora-Neimoidia.

The Neimoidians finally understood that in such a war era, wealth and finance are all false. Only industry, and it must be industry, can protect themselves.

Therefore, for the Galactic Empire, although the Trade Union's power in the galaxy is intertwined, their client worlds are almost everywhere, reaching thousands of star systems, but their most core planets are almost all in the core circle.

In other words, the Galactic Empire does not need to mobilize on a large scale, and can even directly dispatch the three major legions guarding the core circle - the First Galaxy Army, the Second Galaxy Army and the Third Army - to attack the Trade Union. Although the Second Galaxy Army suffered heavy losses and was almost completely destroyed due to the expedition to the Mandalore Star Region led by Master Mace Windu, it is still no problem for the First Galaxy Army and the Third Army to dispatch more than 2,000 battleships.

However, the plan to attack the Trade Union is also very unfeasible - even though the Trade Union has been blatantly mixed with the Separatists and the Principality of Dawn in recent years, the reputation and relationship network they have established for a long time are still entangled and cannot be easily shaken.

There are so many people who have interests in the Trade Union, those who have been bribed by the Trade Union, and even those whose home planets are controlled by the Trade Union. It is impossible to say how many people there are. Even though the Republic Parliament has been dissolved and the Imperial Parliament is basically a decoration, those members and senior officials still have enough power to influence the decision-making of the Galactic Empire.

Therefore, if we attack the Trade Union directly at this time, not to mention that the Trade Union will definitely block major transportation routes and let it go, the opposition voices within the Empire will definitely not be small.

However, the opportunity is here.

Darth Vader said in a dull voice: "Since Darth Malthael has disappeared, we will take this opportunity to directly destroy the Trade Union and occupy their core planets. The Principality of Dawn will not be able to respond."

"Hehehehe... Indeed! Indeed! Good! Very good!!" Darth Sidious laughed strangely, obviously very satisfied with this plan, "Since attacking the Trade Union will lead to their counterattack, it is better to take advantage of the absence of Darth Malthael and directly destroy them! Let them have no time to react!"

"Your Majesty. Now is undoubtedly a good opportunity... I also agree to attack the Trade Union immediately." Sat Pestag quickly agreed.

For him, as long as Palpatine does not think of forcibly sending troops to attack the Principality of Dawn, then everything is fine. It is not a bad idea to vent all Palpatine's anger on the Trade Union.

Others present thought the same.

After all, the Trade Union is still a tangible target, and the Galactic Empire will definitely be able to crush their weak fleet. On the contrary, the Principality of Dawn? It was a powerful existence that defeated the Galactic Republic in battle after battle during the Clone Wars, and the Empire had to accept their separate peace agreement in the end!

Don't think that the separate peace at that time was the Principality of Dawn bowing to the Galactic Empire. In fact, on the contrary, the Galactic Empire also believed that it failed to wipe out the Principality of Dawn in one fell swoop, but could only sign a peace agreement with them with a pinched nose, which was a huge shame.

As a big country, it could only accept the proposal of a small country to end the war, which was a huge failure in itself!

But no matter how unwilling or humiliating it was, even Palpatine had to admit that the Galactic Empire, which was now facing internal and external troubles, was indeed not suitable to choose the Principality of Dawn as its biggest enemy.

The Trade Union was indeed the most suitable target from an economic and military perspective.

So, the decision to attack the Trade Union was very hastily confirmed in such a meeting that started well but ended badly.

The one who led the army to launch this offensive was naturally Darth Vader. He immediately went to the Imperial Ministry of Defense and began to mobilize the fleet and make plans.

This attack on the Trade Union was named "Eradication Operation" by Darth Vader. The main force of the attack will be the main fleet of the Third Army of the Galactic Empire, a total of 1,200 battleships. And the First Galaxy Army will also draw 300 battleships to join this operation.

Therefore, the total force is 1,500 battleships, 2,800 light cruisers and heavy cruisers, 12,000 small warships, 2,000 transport ships, including 4 million marines.

The initial time of the operation was set for 40 days later, 12 BBY, August 1.

…

After determining the established strategy, all the propaganda machines of the Galactic Empire were fully launched.

Countless editorials and news exposed the Trade Union's collusion with the Separatists during the Clone Wars, playing both sides, and opposing the Galactic Republic.

Not only that, almost all the shady deals, money laundering, and illegal activities of the Trade Union over the years have been made public!

For a time, the reputation of the Trade Union plummeted.

Even if the media controlled by the Trade Union tried their best to whitewash themselves, the voice they made was still insignificant compared to the official mouthpiece of the Galactic Empire.

Under the control of Crueya Vandron, the core of the Imperial New Order Maintenance Committee, the major media in the Galactic Empire almost had the same voice, and all different voices were directly made to disappear in various ways.

All propaganda and media pointed in one direction - the treason of the Trade Union!

Not only did the Trade Union control the navigation data of the Outer Rim Star Region, which made it impossible for the Galactic Republic to counterattack and enter the Outer Rim Star Region to form a snowball situation when it had a slight advantage at the beginning of the war. And it includes the Trade Union helping the Confederacy of Independent Systems to produce robot corps, and through large-scale logistics channels, the Confederacy of Independent Systems can build an industrial core comparable to the three major industrial giants of the Galactic Republic on the small industrial satellite of Parment Harbor, which was originally unknown!

Then, the Supreme Court of the Galactic Empire, in the absence of the Trade Union representative, sentenced the Trade Union in absentia for treason. The Trade Union was sentenced to confiscate all assets to compensate for all war expenses from the beginning of the Galactic Republic to the present, and will be responsible for all war losses during the Clone Wars.

The current Governor of the Trade Union, Newt Gunray, was declared a Class A war criminal and the number one person responsible for the Trade Union's participation in the war. At the same time, the Trade Union's parliamentary representative, Lotte Dude, was directly expelled from the Imperial Parliament, deprived of all political rights, and was not allowed to make any voice for the Trade Union in the parliament.

All these actions point to one fact-the Galactic Empire is determined to wipe out the Trade Union! In this case, many neutral factions were forced to stand on the side of the Galactic Empire under pressure and prepare to participate in the feast of dividing the super cake of the Trade Union!

The Trade Union was naturally unwilling to sit and wait for death. They immediately stopped all navigation and transportation services in the Outer Rim Star Region and announced that all official and unofficial spacecraft of the Galactic Empire were not allowed to use the navigation data of the Trade Union.

At the same time, the Trade Union instigated almost all the affiliated star systems and their permanent customer star systems to directly stand up against the Galactic Empire. Not only did they break out in large-scale demonstrations and seize the assets of the Galactic Empire, but they even directly listed all merchant fleets flying the flag of the Galactic Empire as targets of attack.

This time, they almost directly tore their faces apart. With the mentality of fighting to the death, the Trade Union launched a destructive counterattack against the Galactic Empire.

For a time, the Galactic Empire's sphere of influence in the Outer Rim of the Milky Way was almost completely lost at the same time. In the absence of navigation data, the Galactic Empire could not even send troops to the Outer Rim Star Region to suppress it!

So the Galactic Empire had only two options left - the first was to sit back and watch the Trade Union cut off all contacts in the Outer Rim Star Region and acquiesce that the Galactic Empire lost all the territory of the Outer Rim Star Region. The second was to directly deploy heavy troops in the core star system of the Trade Union and force the Trade Union to fight a decisive battle.

In short, even if my Galactic Empire has to give up the Central and Outer Rings, I will still fight your Trade Federation to the end!

There is no doubt that the Galactic Empire chose the latter.

A large number of fleets began to gather and surrounded several core planets of the Trade Union - Neimoidia, Balmora, Cato-Neimoidia and other most powerful planets.

In fact, even before this, these planets were already under the direct supervision of the Galactic Empire fleet. The powerful force of more than 800 battleships has already blocked these planets.

In fact, the blockade has already existed before, and the core planets of the Trade Union have long been surrounded by the fleet of the Galactic Empire. But the current series of troop deployments is obviously not a normal rotation.

The mobilization of thousands of battleships and more than 4,000 frigates of various types also shows one thing - the Galactic Empire has no intention of letting the Trade Union survive this time!

But the Trade Union is rich after all. They began to build planetary defense systems on a large scale in these core planets on the grounds of protecting their own property.

Planetary shield? That is the most basic equipment.

These planets also include planetary energy supply centers, large planetary shields, large orbital defense systems, concealed space hangar platforms, Argonev-class interstellar bases, Gauss defense platforms and other various defense facilities. These expensive and powerful facilities have begun to be set up in almost all the affiliated star systems of the Trade Union.

In short, the Trade Union lacks everything except money.

A complete planetary defense system can match the powerful force of a fleet of the Galactic Empire. Now that the Galactic Empire has been found to be plotting against evil, the Trade Union has activated all its defense forces to form an extremely powerful defense network!

Newt Gunray quickly appointed Mal-Tuk, a rare general of the Neimoidians, as the commander-in-chief to coordinate the positioning of the core planets.

At the same time, Newt Gunray also went to the Dawn planet in person to ask for help from Grand Duke Tang Xiao of Dawn.

Now that the Galactic Empire wants to invade directly and solve all the problems of the Trade Union in one fell swoop, it is very obvious. Newt Gunray hopes that the Principality of Dawn will send troops directly, at least to launch several offensives on the border to contain the Galactic Empire's fleet.

But what made Newt Gunray very uneasy was that Tang Xiao had always met with him without any obstacles and started the conversation directly. But now, Tang Xiao never showed up, and he was received by the Prime Minister of the Principality, Francis Underwood.

And the answer given by Underwood to Newt Gunray was also despairing - the Principality of Dawn currently had no power or willingness to directly send troops to start a war with the Galactic Empire.