Chapter 278: “universal Referendum Act”
“Prime Minister Hans, what you say makes sense.”
‘Phew’
It had to be said that, as the imperial family rulers who had inherited power for thousands of years, although Hans Ming had not paid much attention to state affairs since ascending the throne these years, his sudden outburst today still left a very profound impression on Prime Minister Mai Si, who had been in office for 300 years.
But for now, it seemed that this young Your Majesty had finally calmed down.
Mai Si’s mind was still racing at high speed. He knew that this could not extinguish Hans Ming’s desire to declare war on humanity. After all, if he were in that position, his attitude might be even more hardline.
But no!
As a custom-made life-extending drug with a selling price of up to a hundred billion, no matter how hard he tried, it would be impossible to achieve this goal relying on this resource-depleted star system.
And even if he successfully captured the Solar System, at that time, with the imperial family’s absolute prestige after the war, not to mention whether he could get enough benefits, just looking at the imperial family’s current attitude toward him, they would absolutely not allow him to continue in office.
Thinking of this, Mai Si slightly bowed his body and said in a rare humble posture: “Respected Your Majesty, it is not that this old minister does not want to continue the Empire’s glory, but for this matter, we must consider their attitude.”
The atmosphere in the meeting room, with the outburst of emotions from the two, seemed somewhat quiet at this moment.
Everyone looked at these two ruler and minister who had been together for 300 years. Even Hans Luo Er, who had always been at odds with Mai Si, could not help but restrain his temper at this moment.
He was not a fool; he knew that this was now a struggle between imperial power and prime ministerial power.
And as a soldier charging into battle, at this critical moment, he could not interject.
“To tell the truth, which is also a well-known fact.
As a third level civilization, they now hold more than ten Titan-class Battleships.
Under their command, there are even hundreds of Dreadnoughts, which are highly regarded in the Starfield Market.
As for those battleships that our civilization uses as main force, in their hands, they are merely ships used only at the tactical level.
The gap between our two sides is simply too great.
And most importantly, what is it?”
After Hans Ming fell silent, Mai Si finally pulled the conversation atmosphere back to his own rhythm. Looking at the quiet high-ranking officials around him, he gradually raised his voice and said:
“The most important point is that our Hans Civilization has only one sovereign star system in hand!
And it is a star system that is about to be resource-depleted.
While they have dozens of sovereign star systems in hand, most of which have extremely abundant resources—not to mention that due to insufficient human resources, they currently have no mining plans at all.
Do you know?
Although they appear to be a warring civilization, in reality, they are still essentially an ordinary development-type civilization.
And very importantly, their total population now, including all subordinate civilizations under them, has approached the hundred billion population mark.
While we, even if we develop our population desperately, have only 20 billion so far.
Just from this aspect, everyone, think about it—this is the huge gap between us and them.”
Mai Si looked at the group of high-ranking officials around him, who were silent with a hint of despair in the atmosphere, and a barely noticeable smile appeared on his face.
He wanted them to know the gap between a second level civilization and a third level civilization.
Otherwise, these high-ranking officials who knew nothing about the gap might be led astray by His Majesty Hans Ming.
Of course, this did not mean that he himself did not want the Empire to continue to prosper.
After all, as the Prime Minister who was second only to one person in the Empire and held great power, his current life would absolutely not be worse than after joining the Sirius Civilization.
But the premise was that he had to survive.
And the fact was that Mai Si’s lifespan was not much left.
The Hans Civilization, to put it bluntly, was one of the few chips he could use for exchange.
Mai Si concealed the smile in his eyes and said with a pained expression: “It is not that I am boosting others’ morale and dampening our own.”
He turned his head to look at Hans Ming on the throne, wearing a golden crown, and said in his extremely infectious, hoarse voice: “Your Majesty, we really have too great a gap with them in this aspect; there is no chance at all.”
Mai Si was extremely cunning and crafty.
His speech so far had merely laid bare the gap between the Hans Civilization and the Sirius Civilization right in front of everyone’s faces.
But he had not expressed any stance on how to handle it.
After all, as the Prime Minister who had in fact managed the Empire’s state affairs for 300 years, he needed to maintain a certain prestige.
And once he stated his attitude toward that final result, his personal image would inevitably collapse.
After all, some things could be done but not said outright.
“If the Prime Minister thinks that our Hans Civilization is inferior to them in strength, then does the Prime Minister believe that our Hans Civilization has only one path left: to join them and become a subordinate civilization under them, existing in a slave-like identity?
Answer me, Prime Minister!”
Swish
In the meeting room, everyone’s gazes suddenly converged on Mai Si, who had a look of grief on his face.
At this moment, Hans Ming’s words were like a sharp spear, throwing out this problem that everyone had deliberately avoided, and using his identity, his attitude allowed no refutation.
Mai Si’s gaze was slightly stunned. At this moment, his gaze suddenly showed no evasion, staring intently at the emperor on the high throne who seemed like a changed person today.
Hans Ming also did not evade. There was ruthlessness in his eyes, clearly having made a decision in his own interest after Mai Si revealed his thoughts.
In the meeting room, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Everyone’s gazes shifted between this pair of ruler and minister, not even daring to breathe loudly, fearing being ground to powder by the sparks of their intense clash.
After a long time, for some reason, Mai Si’s gaze gradually withdrew.
As a Prime Minister who had managed the Empire’s state affairs for 300 years, he knew that intensifying the conflict at this moment was not a good choice.
Although His Majesty the Emperor’s attitude was very firm today.
But after all, he was the Empire’s Prime Minister. No matter what, the current Ministry of War could not effectively mobilize a single soldier without the Mai Family’s approval, not even the Emperor of the Empire.
This was the result he had achieved after the military-political reforms he had completed subtly like spring rain over these 300-plus years.
His time was not much left.
But similarly, the time left for the Hans Civilization was not much either.
Ten years!
As long as he could drag it out for these ten years, then with the Hans Empire’s current economic state, even with cooperation between human civilizations to ensure certain sustained revenue.
Once the resources in the star system were completely depleted, facing hundreds of millions of mineral workers about to be completely unemployed, the imperial royal family, no matter how opposed, could not stop the operation of an important act in the Galactic Alliance.
Universal Referendum Act
