Chapter 684: Guilliman: I

Ultramar frontier, Gloriana-class battleship *Macragge's Honour*.

Roboute Guilliman let out a deep breath and put down the document in his hand.

Now that the interior of the Imperium was tending toward peace, military affairs had become much fewer, and the productivity of many planets had been released again. Political and economic affairs began to increase.

The Imperium's productivity had never been low. In fact, among all the races in the galaxy today, humanity's productivity was the number one by a cliff-like margin. As long as one-tenth of the productivity was invested in the war against the T'au, they could drown the T'au Empire with a near-endless sea of warships.

But the Imperium's real problem lay in the extremely low efficiency of distribution and the various planets that were gradually tending toward a single industry.

This was an inevitable result. The galaxy was vast, Warp travel was low, and astropathic communication was slow. The efficiency of material transfer was low, and it often could only operate according to rigid and fixed patterns. Even a slight accident would cause serious impact on the whole.

And in interstellar trade, a common situation was that the cost of a Hive World growing its own crops was higher than the cost of large-scale transportation from an Agri-World, while the cost of an Agri-World building its own factories to produce farm tools was also far higher than transportation from a nearby Hive World.

Thus, Hive Worlds would increasingly abandon agricultural production, tending to specialize in producing every type of industrial product, and Agri-Worlds would increasingly abandon industrial production, tending to produce a few specific types of crops.

Gradually, every world began to exhaust all its power to specialize in producing a few or even one type of industrial product or agricultural product, while others relied on imports from nearby systems. As time passed, the production mode of the vast majority of the Imperium's planets became a state where the production efficiency of a single product was extremely high, and the industrial structure was extremely single.

But the advantage of this mode was that the overall production capacity was extremely high.

The disadvantage was that the Imperium's transportation could not bear such a large production capacity. Without transportation, there was no consumption. The final result was often that a single product piled up in a certain planet and even had to be destroyed... and it might even bring about "affluent hunger."

Guilliman had investigated an Agri-World that had erupted in famine not long ago. The agricultural production of this Agri-World clearly had no problems, but the famine still erupted.

Guilliman asked the local farmers, and the result he got was:

"Why can't we afford to eat? Because we have no money."

"Why no money? Because the farm can't pay wages."

"Why can't the farm pay wages? Because the farm stopped operating."

"Why did the farm stop operating? Because there is too much grain, and it can't be sold."

This was a microcosm, reflecting the Imperium's real problem: too much production, but too little consumption.

But these problems were currently being solved.

One was Cawl; Cawl's improved Any-Star-Gate was being promoted among the stars.

The second was Zhou Yun—not because he brought out any new gadgets, but simply because of the Four-Dimensional Pocket.

The first time he knew that the Four-Dimensional Pocket could sell anything, Guilliman realized the extraordinary value of this pocket.

It was actually able to throw away and sell any amount of goods, regardless of the type of goods.

This... this was simply a consumer with infinite currency, the Messiah of the market's dreams. No matter how many goods the Imperium produced, this pocket could consume them. The consumption power of the twenty-second century was too great!!!

And after Zhou Yun ascended, all this became even simpler. Now, it only required letting the Saint Doraemon Church sing hymns and dance to a pile of goods to sacrifice these goods to Saint Doraemon.

Then, Saint Doraemon would throw down the products that a Hive World had in surplus for one or two years, which could be exchanged for an Any-Door. After being modified by the Adeptus Mechanicus, this planet could obtain a merchant ship with an Any-Star-Gate.

The Imperium's economic cycle thus started running.

It was just that there were too many planets in the Imperium, and it would take time to join the new economic cycle.

This was also why Guilliman deliberately kept the intensity of the war between the T'au Empire and Ultramar.

The Lion had once proposed that he lead a team to directly behead all the high-level officials of the T'au Empire.

But Guilliman refused.

One reason was that the war with the T'au Empire could consume the Imperium's excess production capacity.

The second was that now Chaos and the traitors only had small-scale harassment of the Imperium's interior. The main enemies had become Orks and Tyranids. Orks were also mainly small-scale attacks, and the Tyranid swarm had not been very active recently, so a lot of the Imperium's military power had been freed up.

But not participating in war for a long time would lead to a decline in combat effectiveness, so Guilliman required various Chapters and the Astra Militarum to rotate on the front line between Ultramar and the T'au Empire, and to collect the necessary supplies on the way, so as to achieve the purpose of training troops and consuming excess production capacity.

But the change in the situation was a bit beyond expectations.

Sanguinius and the Lion had left Ultramar.

Guilliman didn't feel there was anything wrong with that, and the problem didn't seem to be very big.

But Zhou Yun stated that the Imperium's two star sectors and nine legions were all on Guilliman's shoulders alone, and he couldn't add any more burden to Guilliman. He wanted to give Guilliman support.

And then...

Guilliman raised his head with a bit of bitterness.

His gaze first swept over his side. His descendant Sicarius was gripping his sword tightly, his face looking strange and hard to hold.

Not long ago, Sicarius's ship was accidentally drawn into the Warp, but he eventually killed his way out of the Warp with one man and one sword.

But at this moment, his expression indicated that he was doubting whether he had actually escaped from the Warp...

And his Chapter Master Calgar was looking at his pair of fists with confusion, as if he had lost his goal in life.

Chief Librarian Tigurius was smiling, appearing to think that he had finally been driven mad by the Warp.

Beside them was a group of blue... Tzeentch demons processing documents.

This group of Tzeentch demons had blank faces, and behind them stood several signs: "Apply Wolf Culture to Work," "I Love Work, Work Loves Me," "Work Hard to Realize the Meaning of Demon Life."

Leading them was the famous Tzeentch demon Blue Scribes Pterich and Syll'Esske, who were responsible for recording all magic spells and were now responsible for recording the productivity status of different planets in the Imperium.

And on the other side of the Tzeentch demons' ranks were the Slaaneshi demons who had just returned from the battlefield.

The Chief Slaaneshi Greater Daemon Shalaxi Helbane was wiping his silver shield, the Masque was dancing with light steps to weave a new dance, and the Keeper of Secrets Zarakynel was playing with a female T'au who only had a torso and a head left.

Noticing the gaze cast by Guilliman, Shalaxi Helbane raised his head, revealing a charming smile.

"My Lord, Monarch, the T'au are not very moist. Can you let us go kill some Dwarfs for fun?"

Being called Monarch by a Slaaneshi demon gave Guilliman goosebumps all over his body.

But soon, Guilliman began to feel that the title of Monarch was also acceptable.

"Warmaster!" The Khorne Daemon Prince Doombreed spat out a few mouthfuls of sulfur-smelling thick smoke. He used the title of Warmaster to address Guilliman.

"This group of Slaaneshi hags is only suitable for fighting sissy T'au!"

"Slaaneshi things only know how to shoot back and forth, not daring to fight with real knives and guns, and the T'au only know how to shoot back and forth, not daring to fight with real knives and guns!"

"They are a perfect match! Let them go fight the T'au!"

Behind Doombreed, the Bloodthirsters who were sharpening their weapons nodded in praise.

The Slaaneshi demons soon cursed back, and they got into a mess with the Khorne demons.

Guilliman took a deep breath and turned his head to look at the Nurgle side that had just arrived.

The Nurgle side came the latest. They not only brought demons, but the Death Guard's former 14th Legion also came.

Guilliman looked at those Nurgle demons crowding the Macragge hall, emitting a rotting stench.

Many extraordinarily powerful Nurgle demons had come.

Septicemia, Rain-Father, Dysentery, Leprosy, Cowpox, Black Death, Bolarix, AIDS, Mortarion, Impotence, Syphilis... Hmm?

Guilliman's gaze shifted slightly, looking at the gloomy, pale, thin, and wrinkled face under the hood.

Those eyes like dark clouds were staring at Guilliman.

"..." Guilliman put down the paper and pen in his hand and stood up abruptly.

"If you didn't stand up to welcome me, I would have thought I came to the wrong place."

Mortarion smiled coldly and said:

"I almost thought this was the *Vengeance Spirit*. Only after looking carefully did I realize it was our Warmaster's *Macragge's Honour*!"

"Why are you here?" Guilliman blurted out.

"Why am I here?" Mortarion's eye corners twitched slightly. "I'll tell you why I'm here!"

"Decades ago, that one..." Mortarion reached out his hand, clenching it into a round hand, signaling to Guilliman who he was referring to: "That one used your image and borrowed a few Nurglings to send me a message."

"He wore your face and said: 'Old Fourteen! Don't think you're the toughest among the brothers!'" ===== CHAPTER 685 =====