Chapter 529, Alliance Northern Expedition
The political pressure on the alliance has always existed.
First strong, then weak, and then suddenly stronger, the alliance had to compromise to a certain extent. Until the past year, it was almost so strong that there were a lot of criticisms of the alliance's policies.
Some of the harshest critics have even begun to believe that the alliance is just another smaller version of the 'iron-wrathed stone'. The same country within a country, the same disobedience to orders. In the past, taxes were still paid, but now that Gallardo has given the alliance the so-called commander-in-chief of the Southern Front Theater, the taxes have been retained, saying that he is preparing for the war against Iron Fury Stone, but after a few There hasn't been any big movement for years.
This resulted in a series of big changes.
Four years ago, Eastern Space Territory allocated tens of billions a year to the alliance as war aid. However, this money was completely stopped two years ago.
Several inquisitors came from the Heretic Tribunal, claiming to investigate the alliance's misconduct, believing that there was an illegal connection between the alliance and the Iron Fury Stone. Although the final result was nothing, and the Heretic Tribunal did not really want to do anything to the Alliance, but since it made such a gesture, it meant a warning.
The Astra Militarum headquarters rejected two expansion plans of the Raging Bear Legion. This resulted in the 200 million army troops that were originally to be incorporated into the Astra Militarum. They could only continue to maintain the identity of the Alliance Army, making it impossible for the Alliance to settle its accounts. The consumption of imperial tax can only be counted as alliance financial expenditure.
The Alliance also submitted a written explanation to Holy Terra through the mouth of Gallardo.
There was no overly fierce tone, but the alliance also clearly pointed out that the entire so-called southern theater now actually only has the alliance alone, without any other reinforcements, and its strength is simply insufficient.
Mr. Gu's requirements are not many. If the empire can deploy two to three battle groups and more than five battleship-level giant ships, then the alliance will have the ability to launch a large-scale active attack.
Once these supports were in place, the Alliance launched an offensive without saying a word.
When Gallardo said this, it is said that people outside the Ministry of Military Affairs jumped up to blame Gallardo, saying why not allocate enough troops to the southern theater so that Gu Hang could advance earlier?
Faced with such accusations, Gallardo didn't need to say anything. People within the Ministry of Military Affairs began to talk about him.
To put it simply, where are the troops?
The empire is a mess riddled with holes! Every moment, countless wars are taking place within the empire.
The most eye-catching thing in the entire empire right now is the turmoil in the Spider Web Domain. But that doesn't mean that wars elsewhere are unimportant.
Take the Eastern Space Region as an example. Apart from the Dragon Eagle Star Region and the Menghe Star Region, which of the remaining places has not caused some trouble for itself?
It’s all there!
In fact, most of them are similar to the level of crisis in the Dragon Eagle Star Territory a few years ago before the Iron Teeth Green Tide broke out, which means that each star territory actually needs a certain degree of combat preparedness to solve, or at least deal with, the star. Crisis in the domain.
The same goes for the government of the Universe. In the capital of the Eastern Universe, the biggest problem faced by the Wuji Star Region is the frequent occurrence of pirates.
Those were not ordinary pirates, but there were many Dark Eldar mixed in them.
These tall and thin space aliens with pointed ears and mostly gray-black, gray-white, or purple-white skin are bloody and cruel. They have little interest in occupying specific planetary territories, and their home base has always been a mystery. But what is known is that they are not only interested in robbing supplies and robbing people and turning them into slaves, but they are also very interested.
In the Wuji Star Territory, and even in many surrounding star territories, reports on the activities of the Dark Eldar have been common. These hateful aliens have strange movements and often attack human ships. They rarely attack large groups of human military fleets, but if they encounter weakly defended transport ships or even warships performing separate missions, they will not be polite at all.
After winning, most of the time the people and the ship are all taken away; sometimes the ship cannot be taken away, or the ship is damaged in the battle, then only the goods and people are taken away.
They will even attack some planets that are not well-defended, not seeking to occupy them, but just to plunder them. The most exaggerated thing is that they were able to completely evacuate a nest city from the beginning of the attack to the end of the operation in one month. And this period of time is not even enough for reinforcements to arrive.
The governments of the Wuji Star Territory and the Eastern Space Territory must maintain a force that is strong enough and capable of quick response to deal with the threat of the Dark Eldar.
The same is true for other star regions, and even for the entire empire.
The types of threats vary, but they are definitely there.
Although the empire is large, the real mobile forces that can be mobilized are actually very limited.
How to allocate it to the alliance?
To take a step back, even if there are abundant troops, they will be sent to the western front and the northern front.
Give you Gu Hang who doesn’t work?
In this report, the Alliance also clearly mentioned a timetable, saying that the Alliance's ships are under construction and it will take a certain amount of time to prepare for war.
The alliance originally did not want to reveal this statement so directly.
Hiding one's strength and biding one's time is a better choice. Even if there is to be a fight, it is better to have some suddenness.
But there was no choice. Political pressure was here, and Gu Hang had to make a choice.
This part of his written report was barely passable. Although there will still be a lot of public criticism and urging from various aspects, it is still better than before.
However, there are advantages on the one hand and disadvantages on the other hand.
It is impossible for the alliance to hide this statement from its good neighbors in the north.
It is impossible for the Iron Armor Chapter's intelligence capabilities not to know such things.
The clear timetable means that by that time, it will be the time for the Alliance to take action against the Iron Fury Stone.
So, can Humphrey Paul tolerate the alliance quickly accumulating strength, and then launch an attack on him after being fully prepared according to the plan?
That's obviously impossible.
Even though Iron Fury Stone's main force is still focused on the Western Front battlefield, pursuing the Phoenix Chapter fiercely, they have also significantly increased their emphasis on the Southern Front battlefield.
First of all, Purbov felt it. Iron Fury Stone obviously sent a large number of troops to the southernmost star field of the Spider Web Space, which is the Proud Claw Star Field. Immediately afterwards, an army led by the Alliance's old enemy, the Raging Flames, fiercely rushed into the Menghe Star Territory.
The person leading the team is the current leader of the Raging Flames, Adler Paulitos. He was originally the captain of the third company of the Raging Flames. After the bloody battle, the former chapter leader Erso died, and a large number of key members also died in that duel. He was the only one. Only this third company commander can take over.
There was originally a small area in the northern part of the Meng River Star Region that was occupied by rebels. Previously, Perbov, under the order of the alliance headquarters, led the advance force to speed up the attack on this occupied area. Due to the lack of troops and the alliance's strategy, his actions in the north of the Meng River were actually not ferocious. They were mainly to let others know that the alliance was taking the initiative to attack.
In this case, the fierce attack of the Raging Flames caught the alliance by surprise.
Purbov was the one who bore the brunt of the beating.
He made a very cautious judgment on the situation and avoided a decisive battle with his old rival, the Raging Flames, in the northern part of the Meng River Star Territory.
Although according to the intelligence analysis department of the alliance, they believe that the power that Iron Fury Stone can mobilize is definitely not enough. The Raging Flame Chapter already has at least a thousand people who have appeared on the Western Front battlefield. No matter how much Wrath Flame is reincarnated, it won't be able to be reincarnated to the level of iron armor, right? They lost at least 400 to 500 space warriors in the war in the Dragon Eagle Star Territory a few years ago. Some of them were the backbone of the phoenix who were killed by the phoenix in that bloody battle. Including their former Chapter Master.
In this case, how much force can they devote to an active attack on the alliance?
But unfortunately, the troops in Purbov's hands were not sufficient. It’s better not to fight this battle recklessly.
After retreating, Purbov carefully guarded the entire circle of defense that had been formed after turning each world into a fortress in the past few years along the northern part of the Meng River Star Territory, and began to launch a simple and unpretentious battle with the Raging Flames Chapter heading south. A solid, but solid defensive battle.
To be honest, when they learned that the Raging Flames had decided to move south and that Purbeuf had given up the territory he had conquered before and retreated to the defensive line, everyone in the alliance was actually very nervous.
There are also voices in the alliance, complaining that they should not have been able to withstand the pressure in the first place. In the explanation issued to the Empire Central Committee, their own military plan was clearly mentioned.
To a large extent, Iron Fury Stone probably believed that there was no room for maneuver between the two parties because of this explanation. He extinguished his last illusions and decided to strike first.
But the matter has come to this, and it is useless to say anything.
The Alliance began to further increase its troops and mobilized more Phoenix Space Marines to the battlefield in the northern part of the Meng River Star Region.
However, the overall strategy is still defensive.
The Alliance General Staff gave Perbov very clear instructions: prohibit active cross-line attacks, avoid fleet decisive battles, and use fortress-like planets, as well as star forts and battle space stations arranged at various astral tunnel transition nodes, to defeat the enemy. The fleet blocked the defense lines and tried to drag them into the quagmire of ground war.
When necessary, you can adopt the strategy of exchanging space for time. As long as the enemy is not allowed to drive straight in and push forward in a wave, as long as the enemy can be dragged tightly on the fortress-like defense line, then Purbov will have done a great job.
Purbeuf's strategy of dragging the battle into a quagmire was surprisingly successful. Like an experienced chess player, he laid out his moves carefully and calculated each move accurately. The artillery fire of the planet fortress and the interception system of the battle space station formed a dense network, locking the fleet of the Raging Flame Chapter firmly on the periphery.
The ground war also fell into a stalemate. The two sides launched tug-of-war one after another in the rugged terrain of various planets and in the fortress-like cities.
Two years may be just a blink of an eye in an interstellar war, but during this period of time, Perbov was like a rock, indestructible.
His persistence and wisdom allowed the alliance's rear to be stabilized, providing valuable time for the alliance's fleet construction and army reorganization.
Now, outside the Flying Wing Star, the Alliance fleet assembled has become unprecedentedly powerful.
Countless ships lie across the starry sky, like patches of silver-blue waves.
The Alliance Army is also ready to go. Taking armies and army groups as units, they entered battleships and transport ships one after another, and were now within this star field.
Although, for the Alliance, the horn of war has not yet sounded, the flag of the Alliance is already flying in the vast starry sky.
Just waiting for the final order.
And the only one who could issue this order was Gu Hang.
After completing the last stop of the scheduled work inspection tour, Gu Hang took the 'Alliance National Knights' from the Raging Owl Planet and completed the installation of new equipment on this planet where the alliance had just made its fortune. It is the Titan Legion of the Alliance that has returned to the Winged Star.
He held a military meeting on the starport of Flying Wing Star.
Most of the senior officials of the alliance government and senior generals of the alliance military participated in this military meeting.
At the meeting, Gu Hang didn't talk too much about specific strategies and tactics.
These things have been discussed many, many times in the past countless work meetings where details were decided.
The current meeting is more like the last mobilization meeting before the war.
In this meeting, Gu Hang did not speak too much.
In the first half of the content, I briefly talked about how hateful traitors like Iron Fury Stone are. We stand on the side of the empire and will fight these imperial traitors to the end.
After talking about this, the second half of the passage is more important:
"The alliance needs to develop. We are bringing a better life to the people of the Dragon Eagle Star Region and the Menghe Star Region."
"We have gathered huge strength, and we are also practicing our ideals."
"We don't welcome war that much."
“However, if we want to develop, we need a stable external environment.”
"Whoever doesn't give us this kind of environment, then we will hit him hard and hit him hard!"
"Win this war and exchange for a hundred years of peace!"
"Everyone, please join me in fighting for the alliance!"
As Gu Hang raised his arms and shouted, all the generals and senior officials in the audience also stood up, followed the leader, and shouted together:
"Fight for the Alliance!"
……
After the meeting ended, the senior officials and generals left one after another.
They still have a lot of work to do before setting off.
Involving hundreds of thousands of warships, a larger number of transport ships, and the projection of more than one billion army forces, this is an extremely huge project.
But let’s be honest, the league has been preparing for this for years.
In the year 235 of the tenth millennium, the Alliance army set out from the Flying Wing Galaxy.
The Alliance's Northern Expedition begins.
(End of chapter)