Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1245 - 676, Encircle the points to strike the reinforcements_2



Chapter 1245: Chapter 676, Encircle the points to strike the reinforcements_2

This is precisely why we cannot have internal strife: there is absolutely no chance of victory.

Those dreamers have never truly observed the Alliance properly.

After finishing the conversation about the Northern Line Army, Xi Rui intended to take his leave.

However, he saw Gu Hang calling him back.

“There’s one more thing, far more important than that.”

“Oh?” Xi Rui sat back down, somewhat puzzled.

He assumed it was some sort of operation task, and a significant one at that, otherwise, there wouldn’t be a need to discuss it with him at this time.

Sitting there with a solemn expression, he mentally prepared himself during those brief moments.

After all, as an Interstellar Warrior, it was normal to shoulder some major tasks.

He only hoped that by the end, the casualty figures could be kept to a minimum.

However, what Gu Hang proposed left him stunned, no amount of mental preparation could have readied him for it.

“I hope you can take full charge of the frontal offensive from now on. I will be taking the Alliance’s main fleet away for a while…”

Seeing Xi Rui dumbfounded, about to speak, Gu Hang raised a hand: “Please, stay calm and listen to what I have to say first.”

Next, Gu Hang explained in detail to Xi Rui about some intelligence recently confirmed by the Alliance, and his thoughts on it.

When the Western Front Army charged into the Princess Star Domain, their momentum was unstoppable, and the Insect Swarm dispatched a large army to hold them back. They barely managed to check the advance of Salius and Matins, but immediately, Gu Hang didn’t hesitate a bit in attacking from the eastern flank.

The Insect Swarm also pooled a large army to hold them off, but unfortunately, they couldn’t stop it for long.

At this stage, the Queen on Reiaductus had already exposed the issue of the limited forces at her disposal.

The Void Insect Species face manpower shortages too?

It sounds absurd, but it is indeed possible.

If considering the Void Insect Species as a whole, then of course such a problem wouldn’t exist. The Human Empire already has an enormously large population, yet according to estimates by scholars, compared to the Insect Swarm, it is still negligible.

Even though the Void Insect Species’ main force never really reached the Human Empire’s territory, only their ’tentacles’, or even a fleet belonging to a tentacle, they can always showcase far superior numbers on a localized battlefield than humans.

Past war history shows that humans defeated the Insect Swarm by severing the command biological nodes, disrupting their command systems, and then wiping out a large number of Insect Swarms with minimal losses.

Or by using scorched earth tactics, creating isolation zones at the Star Sector or Star Domain level, leaving the Insect Swarm with nothing to consume or replenish, only then could wars be won.

Though killing a thousand enemies may also cost eight hundred of themselves, there was no choice. Otherwise, one could only watch as the Insect Swarm snowballed larger and larger, and there’d be no way to fight it.

But these are boiled-down, data-driven interpretations and cases; each battle naturally requires specific analyses for specific issues.

Does the Queen on Reiaductus have such a colossal swarm force?

No.

Her situation is unique, captured in her larval state by the Iron Armor Battle Group, then raised in a lab in an attempt to control her. Throughout her lengthy growth, she had to mask herself, gradually maneuvering the situation, quietly enlarging the infection, and finally erupting at the last moment.

However, the Iron Armor War ignited before her fully-formed eruption phase arrived.

This was due to the political dynamics of the Empire, as well as the yet-to-be-controlled ambitions of Humphrey Paolo, under the joint influence of several factors.

This forced the Queen to deploy her not-ready-for-activation phase in advance. Otherwise, a direct defeat would leave no room for maneuver.

After years of latent infection, the Swarm had a solid foundation. Bursting out at the critical moment, combined with the infected arm of the Iron Armor and Alfonso Sect, logically could throw the Empire into chaos, giving the Queen ample time to develop further.

This strategy indeed succeeded on the North Line and West Line. But contrary to initial estimates, the South Line, instead, encountered the biggest problem.

The infection was curbed, Alfonso was eliminated… and unexpectedly, on the horizon emerged the Alliance force, launching a presence in the West Line. In her plan, during her development and eruptive phases, extremely important roles were assigned to the Alfonso Sect and the Iron Armor Battle Group; however, they have now been destroyed due to the Alliance’s direct intervention.

When the West and South Lines invaded the Princess Star Domain, the biotic mass concentration and incubation work for the entire Princess Star Domain were not even completed by the Queen.

A significant portion of the biotic mass was still on various planets, which meant that whenever humans attacked those swarm-rich planets and dropped Extinction Order weapons, each one deeply pained her.

Under such circumstances, naturally, the forces available to resist these two-line offensives became insufficient.

Continue fighting like this, and it will indeed allow humans to reach Reiaductus, threatening her life.

But fortunately, among all her previous plans, at least the North Line has been successful.

Drawing forces from the North Line to defend herself became the Queen’s only choice.

Together with that assembled Insect Nest Fleet heading southward to defend the Queen, there were significant quantities of biotic mass gathered from the two star domains, Lefu and Jianguang.

Although the collection work was not as perfectly accomplished as it was in the Princess Star Domain, at least the accumulated amount was considerable.

With this Insect Nest Army and the addition of more biotic mass, it was enough to allow the Queen to sustain the war until victory.

But unfortunately, the Insect Nest Fleet moving south from the North Line was detected by the Alliance.

Upon hearing this, Xi Rui felt a sense of admiration.

Did the Alliance’s intelligence organization have arrangements even in such a chaotic North Line?

Gu Hang could tell what he was thinking—he wasn’t trying to hide it—but he didn’t provide further explanation.

On the one hand, the Alliance did assign quite a few personnel to both the West Line and the North Line as intelligence couriers early in the war; on the other hand, it was also Gu Hang’s considerations on the Insect Swarm’s strategy, and constantly utilizing the Star Language System to observe the northern movements. Although the distance is vast, the commotion made by an Insect Nest Army traveling through a Star Realm Tunnel—a passage humans are adept at using—was still faintly perceptible by him.

With such a multifaceted approach, a relatively accurate judgment was made.

After making this judgment, Gu Hang immediately decided that the Insect Nest unit could not be allowed to merge with the Queen. Especially the biotic masses of the two star domains from the North Line cannot fall into the Queen’s hands.

Otherwise, who knows how many powerful insect warships and extremely powerful individual organisms would be spawned.

Encircling to strike reinforcements was an option to consider.

Strictly speaking, they surely couldn’t surround the Queen completely, but the current situation had some semblance of that.

However, Gu Hang was also reluctant to directly lead the troops northward to strike the reinforcements of the Insect Species.

The Queen was no fool; if she became aware of it, she might dispatch a large force to head north in assistance; alternatively, she could redirect the large southbound auxiliary army and play a cat-and-mouse game with Gu Hang’s main forces.

In such a case, who knows how protracted the battle would become.

Thus, Gu Hang hoped Xi Rui could assume this heavy responsibility: take the remnants of the Northern Line forces and a small contingent left by Gu Hang, maintain the current offensive posture, and keep the Insect Swarm’s attention focused on this place.

As for himself, he would lead the Alliance’s main force to annihilate the reinforcements.

After listening, Xi Rui said nothing for a long while.

He could perceive that Gu Hang’s strategy was correct. Eliminating that reinforcement, preventing it from joining the Queen, was indeed critically important.

The southward-moving Insect Nest unit was indeed very powerful, and only the Alliance’s main force going to intercept it would have a hope of achieving decisive victory.

However… leaving him here to maintain an offensive; the task was excessively arduous.

How many people would have to die?

Even with so many deaths, could the offensive be maintained?

If the offensive faltered, what would happen if the Queen noticed?

One difficult problem after another jumped into his mind, preventing him from immediately agreeing to Gu Hang’s request.


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