Chapter 2910: A Tiger in the Mountain!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
To be fair, the n.o.ble families of the coalition army were not all idiots who were blinded by greed. Bai Xinghe’s mutiny and Lei Chenghu’s chaos were too abrupt, and it was easy for people to wonder whether or not a dangerous trap had been set up in the dark and obscure universe of the Jade Tripod Sector.
But since ancient times, the effectiveness of traps had little to do with the sophistication of the traps themselves. More importantly, the bait placed inside the traps was not attractive enough, and the animals that walked in front of the traps were not hungry enough.
People often only believed what they were willing to believe. A wild beast that had gone mad from hunger would only have bright meat in its eyes, and its nose would only be able to smell the fragrance of fat. It would simply be unable to see the bright edge of a blade ina trap.
Right now, the coalition army of the electors was such a hungry, reckless beast.
As the son of an elected emperor, Song Lixing’s strategic insight and wariness were as good as Song Bugui’s. But his and Song Bugui’s sincere words were not wrong at all. It was not a military issue but a political one whether or not to attack the Jade Tripod Sector.
The revolutionaries were having a hard time, and so were the four electors. After two crus.h.i.+ng defeats, more than seventy percent of their best wars.h.i.+ps and well-trained elites had been lost. The consequences were not limited to the battlefield. A series of disastrous consequences were gradually
surfacing.
Every day, countless demonstrations and illegal gatherings would break out in the territory of the four families.
Every day, countless rumors would spread out in the form of flyers or secret channels, promoting the advocates of the revolutionaries, “Enchanting the ignorant people”.
Every day, countless middle- and low-level n.o.bles would secretly contact the capital city and receive the promise of the capital city. As long as they responded to the “reformation”, not only would their crimes be forgiven, they would also be able to take a share of the fat corpses of the n.o.bles.
Such demonstrations were full of plots and betrayals. It was impossible to eliminate all of them by force.
Besides, the four electors were not strong enough to suppress the riot at all.
After all, in an empire where the strong preyed on the weak and the winners reigned supreme, losing multiple battles in a head-on battle would mean that you had lost all your prestige and the power to intimidate and suppress. Who would listen to you?
‘There were also resources. Simply speaking, money.
Song Bugui, as the commander of the fleet, could not care less about the military expenses of the Flying Star Fleet, the maintenance of the palace, or the cost to stabilize the morale of the people. However, the four electors had to go through all the trouble for a copper coin. Since the imperial capital fell
into the hands of the revolutionaries, the credit of the ‘empire crystal coins’ issued by the imperial court had plummeted. Not to mention the outside world, even the few Core Worlds under the rule of the four families were not very useful. There were even absurd situations where people would rather
trade with ‘free star coins’ or use several special crystals as hard currency than use the imperial crystal coins.
Violence could take away the lives of those who resisted.
But it was impossible to suppress the resistance of the capital with force.
After all, when the executor of the armed forces, the soldiers and the middle-level officers, were not willing to accept the crystal coins of the Star Ocean Imperium as their salary, even the strongest armed forces would collapse and vanish.
Right now, with the abundant a.s.sets that the four families had acc.u.mulated over the past hundreds of years, they could still support the last bit of credit of the crystal coins of the Star Ocean Imperium. They could even resort to the primitive methods of ‘military tickets’, ‘national bonds’, and ‘barter’. But
everybody knew how inefficient and unsustainable such trading methods were in an information society that spanned billions of lightyears.
It did not take many professional financial experts to estimate that the four electors were all very clear that, without a satisfactory victory to boost morale and raise the public’s confidence in the crystal coins of the imperium, the economic foundation of the ‘orthodox government of the Imperium of True
Human Beings’ would be demolished.
This was the truth that Song Lixing had spoken when he was exasperated—Without money, who the h.e.l.l would know whether you were the Elector of Empires or Emperor Chengwu?
Other than that, the most critical and fatal point was that the coalition army of the candidates did not have a clear understanding about the scale and combat ability of the main fleet of the Sanctuary Alliance.
It was only natural.
Since the very beginning, the ‘Parliament of the Imperium’, which was controlled by the four electors, had been insisting that the counterattack of the imperium over the past twenty years was a great victory and that the main force of the Sanctuary Alliance had been crushed. The people of the Sanctuary
Alliance had been driven back to their barren hometown, and they could cause no more trouble.
The ministers in the temple all scoffed at Lei Chenghu’s argument that the main force of the Sanctuary Alliance did not suffer too many losses and was still looking for opportunities in the darkness.
Although such claims were partly self-aggrandizing, after twenty years of bragging, many n.o.bles had been too immersed in the victory lies to stop themselves from believing them.
There were no omniscient or omnipotent deities in the camp of the four electors. How could they have known that the main force of the Star Glory Federation was not only intact but also controlled by a super crystal processor named ‘f.u.xi’, which had been pa.s.sed on since the primeval era and boasted the
greatest computational ability in the entire Pangu Universe?
Therefore, in the evaluation of the four electors, the overall scale and combat ability of the invasion fleet of the Sanctuary Alliance were at least 70% lower than the real number.
By inputting the shrunken original data into the crystal processor and deducing the strategy, a ‘terrifying’ conclusion had been reached.
The a.s.sault of the members of the Star Glory Federation was nothing more than hara.s.sment. At best, it was revenge out of fury, revenge against the imperial capital because they were not willing to let dozens of Sectors be taken away for nothing.
Or rather, the members of the Star Glory Federation were merely bluffing, They were attacking the capital city on the surface, but their target was still the Sectors that they had just lost.
In other words, it was possible for the ‘reformed rebels’ to defend the Empyrean Terminus Sector and Empyrean Terminus.
This was quite bad.
No matter how much the n.o.ble families denied it on the surface, the truth was that the revolutionaries had enchanted the hearts of most of the citizens of the imperium and the low-level Immortal Cultivators. Now that they had a certain ‘righteousness’ in their hands, they were becoming more and more
the ‘wish of the people’.
The battles on the candidate’s side had been a total mess. It was quite disappointing. If the revolutionaries defeated the intruders of the Sanctuary Alliance and secured the Empyrean Terminus Sector and the Empyrean Terminus Sector, wouldn’t the ident.i.ty of ‘True Destiny’s Child’ be confirmed?
As time went by, the people’s will and the public’s will gathered toward the revolutionaries. If so, the candidate for the throne would truly die a graveless death.
Therefore, the war had to be fought and won. The revolutionary rebels had to be divided into two sides and annihilated when Lei Chenghu lost one of his arms in order to regain the initiative.
Was this some sort of ‘victory belief?
Over the next twelve hours, more precise intelligence was sent to the palace of the Yellow Dragon Sector.
According to reliable sources, Lei Chenghu and Bai Xinghe, the two ‘thief generals’, had been having conflicts over the past half month.
The biggest contradiction was whether or not the troops should take a rest.
Although the reformation of the rebels’ attack on the Jade Cauldron Sector seemed smooth and did not encounter much resistance, it was still a small fleet that was attacking the enormous planet after all. Besides, the continuous ‘surroundings’ had consumed a lot of fuel, ammunition, and soldiers.
Although they did not capture Jade Tripod, they had captured a lot of stars.h.i.+ps and a.s.sets inside the star fortress.
Bai Xinghe meant that the troops should stop attacking for three days and digest the resources inside the stars.h.i.+ps and the fortress. Otherwise, the battle would be too hard.
Lei Chenghu, on the other hand, turned down his proposal brutally and even scolded him mercilessly for the bandit’s style. The suppression on Jade Cauldron Planet could not be stopped for even a second until the defenders surrendered. If the defenders were given a chance to catch their breath, all their
previous efforts would have been in vain.
Their opinions were not wrong, but there was a subtle difference in their stances. Lei Chenghu was dedicated to the new imperium and would not hesitate to fight until there were no survivors, but Bai Xinghe was more selfish and considered the fleet under his command his own property. How could he
allow his capital to be wasted in the civil war of the imperium?
It was the starting point of their disagreement. Later, the war became more and more intense, and the gap between them grew deeper and deeper. When the Star Glory Federation sent out the message that they were not going to send out their troops, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Bai
Xinghe had indeed demonstrated the sordid and shameless style of the bandits to the best of his ability. While Lei Chenghu’s subordinates were attacking the No. 1 satellite of the Jade Cauldron Planet, he had retreated at full speed without caring about anything else and exposed Lei Chenghu’s flank. When
he retreated, he had taken with him most of the trophies that he had retrieved from the previous battlefield and the stars.h.i.+ps that were almost intact.
‘The commander-in-chief of the garrison of Jade Cauldron Planet was a man who knew his soldiers well. He took the opportunity to charge out of the atmosphere and attack Lei Chenghu’s weak flank, dragging the fleet of the ‘G.o.d of war’ into a muddy melee. The chaotic battle was still going on even at
this moment. No matter how brilliant the art of command was, it could not be performed. It was all based on morale, courage, and valor. In that regard, the revolutionary army, which had received bad news one after another, was definitely not at an advantage.
Of course, most of the main wars.h.i.+ps of the defenders of the Jade Cauldron Sector had been wrecked or taken away by Bai Xingjian. The few destroyers that were left were enough for them to maneuver in the low-Earth orbit. After such a long time, Lei Chenghu would be able to get rid of the chaos, clean
up the mess, and devour the defenders.
Therefore, the defenders of the Jade Cauldron Sector were in desperate need of the reinforcements of the Yellow Dragon Sector to finish the battle!
The unquestionable intelligence ignited the fire of war in the hearts of all the n.o.bles.
Cowardice and arrogance were two sides of the same coin. The timidest of hearts were often burnt by the illusory flames into an arrogant and fearless glow—although the glow could only last for a short moment.
Most of the n.o.bles had been avoiding Lei Chenghu as if he were a devil or a scorpion the day before. Right now, they were jumping up and down, rubbing their fists, eager to crush the ‘G.o.d of War’ on Lei Chenghu’s head..