In the 65th year of the Cretaceous Era, as Tai Hao awakened once more, a bloody and terrifying purge descended upon the Star River Empire.
Democratic thought, constitutional monarchy, and even extreme ideologies opposing imperial rule were absolute poisons to Tai Hao's reign and had to be suppressed and eradicated.
As one of Tai Hao's claws in controlling the empire, hundreds of thousands of secret agents from the Security Bureau began to operate secretly, cooperating with the intelligence provided by the Quantum Computer One to capture the hidden dissidents within the empire. The existence of the Quantum Computer was exposed to the major powers of the empire for the first time.
The Quantum Computer's ability to read existence made all information transparent, and no matter how deep the opposition forces were hidden, they were all exposed. Millions of rioters, capitalists, thinkers, soldiers, officers, officials, and noble families were forcibly arrested by the Security Bureau.
If resistance was encountered, the Natural Selection, orbiting in near-Earth orbit, would immediately provide fire support and conduct precise orbital bombardment.
The scope of this purge was too broad, even involving the military.
During the purge, the Security Bureau only encountered strong resistance in its arrest operations, and even witnessed organized army revolts.
After decades of development and infiltration, the hidden members of noble families evaded the Mind Imprint, entered the army, and quietly took control of a large portion of the empire's military forces. Some even infiltrated the Strategic Strike Command.
Sadly, these dissidents' decades of effort were destroyed in an instant.
The Quantum Computer One's unparalleled monitoring capability, coupled with the Natural Selection's ability to destroy the surface of a planet.
In a flash, decades of hard work were completely destroyed.
High-energy beams descended from the sky like divine punishment, turning hidden dissidents into charcoal, or even completely evaporating them.
This purge resulted in the arrest of nearly five million people, with nearly one million sentenced to death. A large number of government officials, officers, capitalists, thinkers, and noble family members were sent to the gallows.
The rest would be exiled to the frigid Northern Continent and the scorching Western Continent in batches over the next period.
They would endure extreme cold and heat, as well as lack of food and clothing, using their hands to develop mines, build railways and road systems, and provide resources and nuclear power for the empire's continental development.
While the brutal and bloody purge action strengthened Tai Hao's rule, it also dealt a devastating blow to all sectors of the empire.
Especially the capitalistic sector.
In this purge, fifty percent of the empire's capitalists were affected, thirty percent were executed directly, the financial system was paralyzed, the industrial manufacturing system was almost half-crippled, and even state-owned enterprises suffered heavy losses.
The empire would need to spend a lot of time and resources to recover its finance and industrial manufacturing in the time to come.
After the purge, power returned to Tai Hao's hands once more, and he began to exercise the absolute rule of a feudal emperor.
The Cretaceous Palace, Xuan Niao Terrace.
Tai Hao, clad in a black and gold Xuan Niao imperial robe, sat high above, his eyes sharp and piercing, like a blazing sun, overlooking the courtiers below who bowed respectfully.
"This Prime Minister is actually from a commoner family. It seems that the empire's promotion system hasn't been completely closed off in these decades!"
Hearing Tai Hao's voice, the current Prime Minister stood up and bowed to Tai Hao, who sat on the Xuan Niao Jade Terrace.
"Your servant, Wang Bo, pays homage to the Emperor. I am the seventh Prime Minister of the Empire."
Tai Hao nodded. With the Quantum Computer handling intelligence monitoring, Tai Hao possessed all information about Origin Star.
Wang Bo was from the Wang family of the Southwestern Province, but due to the decline of his family, they had been excluded from the noble ranks. Wang Bo's appearance was the last glimmer of the Wang family.
Once Wang Bo retired, the Wang family might be completely erased from the history of the empire.
"Report to me about the current development achievements of the empire."
"As you command, Emperor." Wang Bo bowed again and began reporting on the various data of the empire to Tai Hao.
"After thirty years of development, the empire has entered the information age. Due to the policy of encouraging childbirth, coupled with the integration of women from other races, the total population of the empire has exceeded 1.8 billion.
After thirty years of breeding, the empire's total population has increased ninefold."
"In terms of industrial production, last year the empire's steel production reached 1 billion tons, and oil consumption was 230 million tons."
"And..."
It took Wang Bo a full hour to complete his report.
Then, the Minister of Science began reporting on the empire's scientific achievements and the future direction of scientific development.
"Great Cretaceous Emperor, under your wise leadership, the empire has begun research on controlled nuclear fusion and has made great breakthroughs.
Intelligent robots have become the main focus of the empire's current development.
The planet engine technology you provided is truly magnificent, allowing the empire's scientific development to have no bottlenecks.
According to predictions, as long as materials science breaks through, the empire will immediately master controlled nuclear fusion, obtain infinite energy, and enter the interstellar age."
This Minister of Science was from the Nangong family and was a very smooth operator who knew how to flatter.
After the Minister of Science completed his report, the Minister of Defense, clad in a black military uniform, stood up and began reporting on the empire's military equipment and deployments.
"Emperor, the Imperial Navy now has five carrier battle groups, each equipped with a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, with a full displacement of 80,000 tons. It is equipped with various warships and comprehensive.
The five carrier battle groups are distributed in various sea areas of Origin Star.
The Imperial Army has a total force of over 5 million, including thirty heavy combined arms brigades.
The heavy combined arms brigades are mainly composed of main battle tanks, supported by artillery, ground-to-ground missiles, infantry fighting vehicles, air defense equipment, and other multi-armed, multi-domain comprehensive combat forces.
The First and Eighth Heavy Combined Arms Brigades are stationed on other continents outside the empire.
The Imperial Air Force has 3,000 fighters of various functions, 1,000 transport aircraft of various types, 300 strategic bombers and tactical bombers."
After the Minister of Defense finished his report, the Minister of Industry directly criticized, "The imperial military has so much equipment; it's a complete waste! The empire doesn't need so many weapons!"
Before the Minister of Defense could retort, the Minister of Industry immediately reported to Tai Hao the empire's industrial production value and various industrial production data.
Finally, came the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Culture. They were pushed to the end.