"Is there really so much ore?" Liu Yi asked in disbelief.

Shangguan Qi nodded and said, "Of course, can this be fake?" Wait, I'll send you the video, and you'll see it as soon as you see it. ”

After speaking, Shangguanqi quickly sent a video, Liu Yi and Ke Rin opened it and took a look, only to see that the video was filmed in a huge cave, the cave was extremely spacious, and the large and small ores were piled up, and the amount was far beyond the imagination of the two.

"There are so many ores! The bandit group has really not been idle in recent years. Ke Rin said in surprise.

Liu Yi asked Shangguan Qi: "Are these all the ores?" ”

Shangguanqi shook his head and said, "Not only that, these are only a part of it, and they can probably account for about one-third." ”

"Oh my God, there are so many ores, the robbers are even better than the mines!" Liu Yi exclaimed.

"I have interrogated some of the robbers who have been caught, and they have confessed that some of these ores have been looted from various mines, and some of them have mined them themselves, and the amount accumulated over the years is very huge." Kamikanzaki explained.

"Strange, do the robbers just pile up the ore in the cave and don't sell it for money?" Liu Yi asked.

"I know something about this, in fact, it's not that the robbers don't sell, but they can't sell so much, the smuggling channels don't have so much digestion capacity, and no one dares to smuggle such a large amount of ore unless they go through regular channels." Kirin said.

Liu Yi smiled: "Isn't this cheapening us for nothing?" Now that we have permission to trade ore, and warships to escort us, this is a windfall from the sky. ”

"Hehe, officialdom is frustrated, and the mall is proud!" Kirin laughed too.

In order to facilitate the handover and transportation of ore, Liu Yi built a large area of wasteland on the outskirts of Yaqiu City in the name of Guangyi Trading Company, and then built many large warehouses on this wasteland to store the ore and various products of various enterprises.

With this warehouse as a cover, Liu Yi asked Shangguanqi to quietly transport the bandits' ore into the warehouse in batches, and except for a few people, not many people knew the origin of these ores.

Transporting ore inevitably involves transporting the ore from the ground to the highland airport on the track, and then loading it away from the highland airport.

In order to ensure the smooth transportation of ore, Liu Yi is bound to hold the highland airport in his own hands, otherwise many unknown things will be exposed to outsiders.

If Liu Yi couldn't put his hand in the Highland Airport before, but now it's different, he is not only a member of the Interim Management Committee, but also a member of the Yaqiu Defense Committee, and his dual identity gives Liu Yi a good reason to install his forces in the Highland Airport.

In the past, the highland airport was directly managed by Ding Kai's governor's palace, but since Ding Kai ran away, the airport has become its own management, and it has become a private small kingdom of the airport manager.

Liu Yi discussed with the members of the committee and decided to replace the airport manager, and promised that the airport would no longer levy customs fees on various mining companies in the future.

These companies are naturally happy to pay less, so no one objects to replacing the airport manager. After completing the work of the enterprise, Liu Yi went to discuss with Lu Gang again, and now Lu Gang has been promoted to one level and has become a colonel, and is in charge of the command of the Yaqiu Defense Army.

If the manager of the highland airport is to be replaced, the military cannot bypass it in any case, because although the airport is under the management of the government, the security of the airport is in the hands of the military.

Lu Gang didn't say anything, because Ding Kai was there before, and it was impossible for the military to insert his hand into the airport, so Lu Gang had no contact with these people at the airport, and it didn't matter if he changed it or not.

As a result, the change of the airport's management has become a sure thing.

"Shangguan, in the future, you should keep an eye on it more, first train our people, and then gradually replace them, so that our business can be smooth." Before Shangguanqi took office, Liu Yi specially instructed.

"Don't worry, a small airport can't bother me. When I get the situation under control, in the future, I plan to build a factory at the airport so that we can produce mechs on it. "Shangguanqi is not interested in officialdom, but he is still very interested in making money.

"No problem, as long as the airport is in our hands, there will be more opportunities to make money in the future, and it is not a problem to build a factory or a space city!" Liu Yi said with a smile.

Once everything was in order, the chain of transporting ore from Aqiu to the Hesiwolf system was set in motion.

Just as Liu Yi and the others' ore trade was gradually starting, the situation in the entire empire was further deteriorating.

Half a year ago, the war in the War Horse System had a huge impact on the entire empire, and the rebels took this opportunity to further develop and grow, not only the War Horse System became the territory of the rebels, but the neighbor of the War Horse Galaxy, the Lion King Galaxy, also became a place where the rebels were wreaking havoc.

The rebels' organization grew extremely rapidly, and soon infiltrated the Leon King system after occupying the War Horse system, where a large number of underground organizations were developed, and then used various terrorist activities to threaten local security.

Obviously, the rebels have learned a lot from the war in the War Horse system, and they no longer fight the regular army with great fanfare, but hide in the crowd and engage in all kinds of terrorist activities, causing panic among the people and causing serious damage to the local economy.

The inhabitants of the Lion King system are plagued by terrorist activities, so many choose to leave the Lion King system and live elsewhere.

A large number of displaced people were mixed in with the rebels, so they traveled to various places with the migration of people, and in each place they went, a large number of locals were recruited to join the rebels, and then replicated the practice in the Lion King system.

The rebels are now like a plague, infecting planet after planet as the movement of people, turning the once peaceful homeland into a source of war.

In the final analysis, the rebels adopted such a method to deal with the empire, in the final analysis, because of the lack of real combat effectiveness, in the vast universe, only a strong fleet is the most powerful existence.

Although the petty terrorist activities were very troublesome, they were not enough to shake the foundations of the empire.

But it is not easy to exterminate the rebels, these underground organizations of the rebels are hidden among the people, and if you want to find these people, you must use a lot of resources and personnel, no matter how powerful the empire is, it is impossible to come up with so many resources and manpower at once.

If the empire is a giant beast, these rebels are like parasites on the giant beast, although they can't bite the giant beast, but the giant beast is very uneasy, and if they don't do it, they will do things that lose their minds.

In addition to hurting unrelated creatures, a mad beast may also hurt itself, or attract the covetousness of other giant beasts.

For an organization like the rebels, which are ubiquitous and difficult to pinpoint the specifics, it is difficult for the Empire's giant ships and mechs to be of real use, relying only on ordinary soldiers.

However, the reality is that the armies on any one planet cannot cope with so many local miniature wars.

Since mankind entered the era of interstellar colonization, the planets that can be inhabited by humans are vast and sparsely populated, and human beings have long bid farewell to the crowded situation on the earth in the past.

Due to the dispersion of the settlements, it is impossible for the garrisons of the planets to take care of so many places, which gives the rebels many opportunities to take advantage of.

Often, long after the rebel attack, the local garrison is late, which is also an important reason for popular dissatisfaction with the government.

As this becomes more and more happening, it becomes a vicious circle, and the more terror the rebels do, the more dissatisfied the population becomes with the government, and the more people join the rebels......

In order to cope with this passive situation, after some discussion at the top of the empire, an order was finally issued to the whole territory to encourage the formation of civilian armed forces in various localities.

At the command, all the civilian armed forces in various places sprung up like mushrooms, and compared to other places, the size of the Yaqiu militia was simply not worth mentioning.

In fact, the top of the empire was forced to make such a decision, firstly, the empire was exhausted by the continuous rebellions that had sprung up in various places, and secondly, because important military secrets had been leaked, resulting in an increase in various civilian armed forces.

At this time, even if the empire does not allow the emergence of private armed forces, it is too late, it is better to legalize them and fight against the rebels, so that they can effectively grasp the actual situation of the civilian armed forces, and can use the power of the people themselves to suppress the rebels.

In the beginning, this strategy did work very well, and many militias fought very bravely, defeating the local rebels and recovering many areas occupied by the rebels.

The key to why the militia is so brave in fighting is that they are all defending their homeland, and they have wives and children behind them to support them, so it is natural that their fighting spirit is unusually high.

But as the militias grew, conflicts between them slowly emerged. Some militia organizations have taken advantage of the opportunity to grow and become local landlords, and have even launched attacks on other militia organizations, vying for territory with each other and acting like warlords.

As a result, the government forces had to take action to suppress these vicious civilian forces, and some militia groups that had been in the past and again became new opposition forces.

This is not an isolated case, and in many places this vicious circle has emerged, with new rebel groups emerging instead of being wiped out.

As a result, the flames of war became more and more intense, and the entire empire was full of tragic scenes of war, and no one expected that things would develop in this direction.

The chaos has given real rebels room to grow, and while there is still a debate about whether the militia should be classified as insurgents, the rebels calling themselves the Free Alliance Army are hiding in the shadows and growing rapidly.

Soon after, a major event shook the Star Han Empire, and a fleet that had been mighty suddenly appeared on the edge of the Lion King Galaxy, and this fleet openly flaunted the banner of the Free Alliance.