The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2927. The Post-War Galaxy (Part 1)
The Fourth Imperial Calendar, Imperial Year 2, January 1st, New Year's Day.

This will also be the first full year since the establishment of the Fourth Reich.

It has been about six months since the signing of the Kira Contract, and the war that once swept across the entire galaxy has finally subsided.

Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.

Contract with Kira is not a particularly "aggressive" contract; rather, it is simply a process of slowly eroding the Galactic Empire.

After the contract was signed, the first to arrive in the Galactic Empire were neither the fleet of the Fourth Empire nor the menacing officials, but rather the transport ships of the Fourth Empire, one after another, loaded with the currency of the fourth denomination.

A massive amount of money quickly flowed into the Galactic Empire's key industries and began operating.

The workers' back wages were settled with Currency No. 4, and at the same time, the Galactic Empire announced that all domestic goods would be settled in Currency No. 4.

However, the exchange rate between the fourth currency and Imperial Credits has dropped from 5:1 to 3:1 and is still decreasing.

The value of Imperial Credits is gradually decreasing.

Meanwhile, a number of mega-corporations flocked to the Fourth Reich. Capital knows no borders; many companies, even those still nominally within the Galactic Empire, had actually begun taking orders from the Fourth Reich.

According to the Kira Contract, the Galactic Empire had no right to stop it—because the trigger for the Second Galactic Civil War was the Galactic Empire's attack on the Trade Federation and the Rendili Interstellar Dynamics Corporation. Therefore, such situations were specifically restricted.

Among the companies that joined the Fourth Reich, the largest was the Tag Corporation, and the other was the Technology Alliance.

Interestingly, these two mega-corporations are actually in similar situations.

The Technological Alliance is no longer as glorious as it was when it joined the Independent System Confederation during the Clone Wars. After that war, many member companies withdrew, and their own strength was greatly reduced.

Furthermore, in the later stages of the Clone Wars, the Technological Alliance made a misguided move, first breaking away from the Independent System Confederation and surrendering to the Galactic Empire. Later, due to oppression from the Galactic Empire, it turned around and tried to break away from the Empire and join the Fourth Empire.

In fact, if the Second Civil War hadn't broken out later, the Galactic Empire would have already planned to resort to force against the Technological Federation, just as it had done against the Trade Federation.

After the war, the Technological Alliance, though weakened, still garnered attention from the Fourth Reich. The Kira Contract specifically mentioned the Technological Alliance's headquarters, which was also their home planet—Skako.

According to the treaty, this powerful industrial world, along with the Technological Union, was ceded to the Fourth Reich. Furthermore, the two-faced foreman, Walter Temple, was stripped of all power, and the Technological Union was nationalized by the Fourth Reich.

In fact, the Technological Alliance started from a very high level. During the Clone Wars, Walter Temple and Tang Xiao had a very good relationship, arguably second only to Newt Gunrey of the Trade Federation. If they had been more steadfast in their stance, their fate would have been far more remarkable.

However, when it comes to making a choice, no one can predict the outcome.

When the Clone Wars ended, the Galactic Empire was at its zenith, and the Fourth Empire could only make peace with them to escape the war and get a chance to breathe. Who could have imagined that ten years later, the final winner would be the Fourth Empire?
In contrast, another super-corporation that defected—Tagg Corporation—was much better off.

At that time, during the peak of the Galactic Empire, the Targ Company became the largest economic entity in the galaxy thanks to its comprehensive business expansion.

In other words, at that time, the Targ Corporation's total economic output even exceeded that of the Fourth Civilization, which had just ended the Clone Wars and could only live in a corner of the world!

However, Sanya-Tagg decisively chose to bet on Tang Xiao. Although her choice was also influenced by the exclusion and assassination attempts within her family, Tagg Company came to Tang Xiao with an enormous dowry.

Therefore, their outcomes were completely different.

The Targ Company was also nationalized by the Fourth Empire, but can this nationalization be the same? Domina Targ, the youngest daughter of the Targ family, was already crowned the Second Empress of the Empire by Tang Xiao at the age of only 15!

Having a queen in the household makes the concept of "state ownership" entirely different. Consider the Lundley Star Dynamics Corporation: when Edelweiss became the First Queen, their company also enjoyed a transcendent status.

Of course, this can also be seen as Tang Xiao's political alliance with the native forces of the Milky Way.

After the Targ Corporation was incorporated into the Fourth Reich, its industries began to align with the Fourth Reich, and the Kira Contract explicitly stated the ownership of the Targ Corporation's home planet, Tepaci, and the Targ Space.

Tepaci is a financial planet, nothing special, but the Tag Space is different. These 3000 planets essentially supported the entire industrial chain of Tag Corporation, which was once the largest economic entity!
Having acquired the Fourth Empire of the Tag Company, their strength has taken a leap forward.

……

During these six months, the Fourth Reich also began to gradually restore its fleet strength.

With the commissioning of the fourth Anchoron-class Titan, the Glutton, the Fourth Empire now possesses a total of seven ships: four Anchoron-class Titans, two Prophet-class Titans, and one Kurtorask Dictator Titan.

Furthermore, the number of Eternal II-class supercarriers has increased to two. Eternal II-class supercarriers are actually considered to be at the near-Titan level.

With the support of these super battleships, the Fourth Empire's fleet is now completely unmatched in this galaxy.

The Fourth Reich currently possesses 500 capital ships, 1500 heavy cruisers, 4000 light cruisers, and a total of 23000 destroyers and frigates.

Among its main combat ships, the Fourth Reich began to vigorously develop heavy cruisers and light aircraft carriers, making its fleet organization increasingly flexible.

The remaining capital ships are mainly warships with unique roles, such as the Prophet-class battleships and Paladin-class battlecruisers. The Cole-class and Hells Angel-class battlecruisers, which are 1,000-meter-class main combat ships, are gradually being replaced by heavy cruisers with a range of 600-800 meters.

This also marks a shift in the strategic focus of the Fourth Reich. According to the General Staff's assessment, the Fourth Reich no longer possesses any force capable of directly confronting the Imperial Fleet. Therefore, it needs to shift its development focus to counterinsurgency operations.

In response to the growing liberalism, the Fourth Reich began to deploy a large number of light aircraft carriers and escort carriers.

Unlike the Galactic Empire, the Fourth Empire's fighter technology far surpasses that of the current galaxy. Therefore, the Fourth Empire's drones and fighter squadrons can effectively counter the Rebel Alliance's tactics of using X-wing fighters for long-range raids.

In the warship procurement plan for the next five years approved by the Supreme Command of the Fourth Reich, the Fourth Reich will increase the number of light aircraft carriers and drone carriers to 4000 and the number of escort carriers to 60000 within the next five years.

In addition, the Fourth Reich Navy is also heavily investing in the escort forces for these aircraft carriers—primarily light cruisers. Over the next five years, the Navy plans to procure 16000 light cruisers and 250000 frigates.

Conversely, in this plan, apart from the third and fourth Prophet-class Titan warships, the Fourth Imperial Navy did not approve the construction of any more Titan warships.

The next generation of new Titan warships is still in the planning stages, and it's not something that can be completed within five years.

The reason why the Fourth Imperial Navy's next plan took such a sharp turn was that it was really being tormented by the increasingly intense liberal movement.

During these six months, the Fourth Reich was initially busy dealing with the Death Star, so it concentrated all its aircraft carriers into the Claw Fleet. At the same time, its main fleet suffered heavy losses, thus leaving a lot of room for the Liberals to operate.

During that period, uprisings also broke out one after another in the Fourth Reich, to the point that it seemed the Fourth Reich was no longer able to withstand the rise of liberalism.

Basically, around the time the Kira Treaty was signed, the Southern Free Trade Zone within the Fourth Empire had been almost completely lost, officials had been killed, the government had been overthrown, and transport fleets had been repeatedly attacked.

It also affected the crystal mining operations on the planet Christophersis, and even a whole ship of Kyber crystals was lost!
The activities of the liberals in the Southern Reach also affected the Sesvina and Haven sectors, where calls for autonomy were growing stronger due to their strategic rear location.

To make matters worse, the Fourth Reich was simply too weak to extinguish the flames of these rebellions during that period! (End of Chapter)