Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 759 - 712: The Great Purge

Although during the capture of Beloburg, Perfikot had already cleared out a wave of coup plotters, that was only the direct participants.

The indirect participants related to them, the dissatisfied opposition, and others tied to the matter for various reasons, as well as those who opposed Perfikot and the Northern Territory daily...

The existence of these people was a thorn in the side for Perfikot.

In the past, she had generously tolerated these people, believing their existence was a necessity.

After all, the existence of opposing opinions allows self-examination for any oversight, preventing becoming a tyrant or dictator who does not heed advice.

But this incident made Perfikot realize that keeping a group of opposition does nothing but cause trouble.

Perhaps the opposition provides a different perspective, serving as a means to gain more inspiration.

However, with the occurrence of this coup, Perfikot clearly realized the greatest significance of these opposition members was to cause trouble and hinder.

If they had any sense, they would recognize the need to cooperate with Perfikot, as this would benefit everyone and improve the Victor Empire.

Unfortunately, they fail to realize this, or even if they do, they deliberately ignore it for various reasons.

This is why the coup occurred, leading to such irreversible consequences.

This made Perfikot realize clearly that she should not tolerate this group of opposition but should completely eliminate them.

Although doing so certainly puts her on a path she least desires, the situation developed to this point leaves Perfikot no room for other thoughts.

Or rather, at the moment the Royalist Party launched the coup, she had no choice.

Thus, a massive purge was launched, with the intelligence organization of the Northern Territory appearing openly alongside the Assassin Brotherhood for the first time.

Based on the intelligence tortuously obtained from the Royalist Party, they followed the trail to arrest one related person after another, executing them on the spot or imprisoning them, enveloping the entire Beloburg in white terror, with the city in a constant state of apprehension.

The purge began, and as more people were captured, it even showed signs of spreading to other cities.

This purge was fundamentally different from any previous purge Perfikot had carried out in the Northern Territory.

Previously, although Perfikot had purged the nobles of the Northern Territory, it was to eradicate potential descendants of the Evil God and believers among the nobles.

For this, Perfikot carefully controlled the scale of the purge to avoid escalation.

Even when she was impeached before, she did not broadly implicate others or purge dissenters.

But this time, Perfikot clearly lost patience in restraining her subordinates, and these released hyenas along with the Northern Territory's original surveillance department used for cult hunting initiated implicating others.

Anyone related to the previous Royalist Party or opposition was imprisoned.

Here, after three rounds of interrogation, if no other issues were found, they could generally be released.

But as long as there was any convictable issue, they faced severe and heavy penalties.

Do not think they are being kind; this is merely to free up prison space, as too many people are being arrested, filling the prisons.

Thus, new Punishment Camps were activated and established, their first task being to build a prison large enough to hold everyone.

However, admittedly, those thrown into the Punishment Camps were lucky, as at least they could survive.

Those whose 'crimes' warranted the death penalty mostly received their execution.

And Perfikot, to execute the criminals more efficiently, even developed a new execution device.

After all, hanging took too much time and required high skill from the executioner (the rope to hang the criminal must be of the right length, not breaking the neck immediately nor failing to suffocate, which is a true craft).

Inspired by the guillotine invented by the King of France, Perfikot replicated this simple and efficient execution method, and improved upon it.

Despite its principle and appearance being similar to the guillotine, Perfikot's invention was vastly more efficient.

Perfikot's invention could execute ten prisoners at once.

A massive blade was lifted by a mechanical structure, and ten prisoners were fixed under the blade frame. With the activation of the mechanism, the massive blade would fall freely, severing the prisoners' heads within 0.1 seconds, preventing them from suffering.

Concise, efficient, even with a hint of mercy.

But it still induced fear, and even the citizens of Beloburg were terrified by it.

They feared the purge might extend to them, even though they did not consider themselves worthy of the guillotine.

Amidst this terrifying atmosphere, Perfikot convened the National Assembly once again to discuss the future path of the Victor Empire.

In everyone's view, this marked the end of freedom and democracy for Victor, with Perfikot using this as a prelude to her dictatorial rule.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, Perfikot did not dissolve the National Assembly or the cabinet, but retained these two institutions, only requiring them to hold new elections quickly to fill the vacancies.

One-third of the National Assembly members were executed on the spot during the coup, and about a quarter were implicated afterward. Quite a few members of the Northern Faction were also implicated, leaving the National Assembly more than half empty, necessitating urgent re-elections to fill its seats.

On the other hand, the cabinet was relatively less affected, as the Royalist Party previously did not hold a majority in the cabinet, and the cabinet did not participate in the coup.

Although two cabinet members were implicated and the Royalist Party was purged from the cabinet, over three-quarters of the cabinet members remained.

Therefore, compared to the National Assembly, the cabinet was still able to function normally.

As for Perfikot herself, under the late Empress's decree, she became the Regent of the Victor Empire, with her power unrestricted.

This in essence achieved Perfikot's previous demand, making her a figure above the cabinet and National Assembly.