Chapter 544: The Direction with the Most Results

Chapter 544: The Direction with the Most Results
Wu Jiarong on the Angry Owl Star was pleasantly surprised to receive the message from President Gu. While she was gearing up to build the Retribution-class battleships, the Alliance's military operations also began to advance to the next stage.

The two star regions in the southern part of the Proud Claw star field that were captured by the Alliance have not been completely digested.

In fact, it is not that easy. After all, the time is still short, the place is still on the front line of the war, and it was once the enemy's territory. The acceptance of the Alliance's rule in these two star regions cannot be very high.

Those local forces will not easily accept total alliance.

This is different from being in the league.

On the Alliance's homeland, local forces on various planets have no conditions to resist. The Alliance has plenty of ways to deal with them through various means, either gentle or tough.

But here, the usefulness of many mild, political means has been greatly reduced.

These local forces may have had deep interests tied to Iron Fury in the past; even if they temporarily succumb to military pressure now, they cannot help but "endure humiliation" with the thought that your alliance will be driven out one day.

Under such external environment and internal conflicts, it is unlikely that the alliance can complete internal integration in just a few months.

But...it's enough.

A certain amount of industrial power can be tapped for the Alliance's use;
Several planets at key transportation locations have completed preliminary fortification construction;

Most planets rely on soldiers recruited from the local area, plus a part of the "Allied Forces" troops from the mainland, to complete the internal suppression of the planet and the blockade of opposition forces.

That’s enough.

The main force of the alliance set out and began to fight northward.

The target of this stage is still two star regions, a total of twenty-nine worlds.

The Fury Fleet was still elusive. They harassed the main force of the Alliance but always avoided a head-on decisive battle.

This allowed the Alliance to take over twenty-nine worlds again relatively smoothly.

The alliance once again adopted the same steady and cautious attitude as before, stopped its offensive and began to digest the situation on the spot.

But this time, the Fury Legion did not sit idly by.

They were not anxious. Instead, when the Alliance controlled four star regions in the Proud Claw Star Field, reaching a total of fifty worlds, they began to have more paths to harass the Alliance's occupied areas.

After all, within the star field, the various star regions are not like the two star fields of Menghe and Aozhua, which are only connected by two worlds and a star tunnel.

There are at least a dozen roads leading to these four star regions, and the Alliance cannot possibly deploy troops to guard all of them.

This resulted in several battles in which the Alliance suffered losses.

The Fury Fleet raided the planet orbit that had been occupied by the Alliance and had a shipyard, destroying several warships that were under repair;

They attacked a transport convoy, not only annihilating the escorting ships, destroying half of the transports, causing the deaths of tens of millions of Union soldiers waiting for the transports, but also escaping before the angry Union fleet arrived.

They even sent reinforcements to Guangfeng Star, trying to send a fleet into Guangfeng Star's orbital defense line. On the one hand, it can increase Guangfeng Star's defense and provide the ability to take the initiative to attack, and on the other hand, it can also convey some information and intelligence to strengthen the besieged planet's ability to continue to hold out and avoid the situation of Shangdong Star.

Fortunately, they were unsuccessful in this regard and were forced back by the alliance’s fleet that besieged Guangfeng.

But despite this, the impact is still very bad.

The space battles that took place in this star system could be observed by the observatory on Guangfeng Star. Even though the ships of Fury failed to successfully enter the orbit of the planet and join the local defenders, and even the attempt to communicate was intercepted by the Alliance, their appearance inside the star system itself could bring a huge morale boost to the local defenders of Guangfeng Star.

The most direct manifestation was that the local garrison, which had originally been somewhat relaxed and not so firm in rejecting the Alliance's diplomatic officials for communication, suddenly became closed and completely stopped communicating with the Alliance. Even from outer space, it could be observed that a city on the surface was still holding some kind of celebration, which made the Alliance Navy so angry that it fired a cannon at it - but of course it was intercepted, and by the way, it helped to set off fireworks in the night sky to add to the fun.

The Alliance also thought of ways to deal with the Fury Fleet.

However, the repeated ambushes and inducements ultimately did not produce much effect.

In one of the ambush battles, the Alliance Fleet took a rather risky action. After the ambush failed, the six assembled giant ships launched a pursuit of the Fury Fleet.

In the Fury Fleet, the Retribution-class battleship was not moving very fast, but on the Alliance side, there was also a Retribution-class battleship that was "dragging its feet".

As the two sides chased and fled, they ran away several galaxies away.

At this point, the Alliance fleet's formation was somewhat stretched. The Nova was lagging behind, struggling to catch up; the Hippogriff could barely keep up, but since they didn't fight, there were few chances for them to join the battle; the four battlecruisers could catch up, but they couldn't defeat them.

If this pursuit continues, there should be gains. The battlecruisers that can catch up do not need to fight hard, just use a blunt knife to cut meat, hit the small boats in the fleet, and occasionally overtake and hunt and delay them.

Highlight the strategy of harassing the enemy while they retreat.

Once the opponent's main battleship goes crazy and wants to fight to the death, the battlecruiser can choose to retreat and the opponent will not be able to catch up.

Even if they didn't want to retreat, they could fight for a while. The relatively faster Hippogriff would soon be able to reach the battlefield; if they could hold on a little longer, the Nova would also arrive.

If we pursue it a little longer, this situation will definitely happen.

However, in the end, Admiral Yelicia, the commander-in-chief of the alliance's main fleet, ordered to stop the pursuit.

They have been chased too far and are no longer under the control of the Alliance, having been chased to several galaxies.

In these strange galaxies, every star jump is a huge adventure.

Even if there are astropaths who can investigate the situation on the other side before crossing the star realm, there are also ways to confuse the investigation.

There are definitely risks.

Who knows if the next jump will be a thrilling pursuit battle, or if the enemy has ambushed eight battleships opposite the jump point?
The main fleets of the navy cannot afford to gamble.

If the army suffered heavy losses, they could still recruit more soldiers from the rear. Even if the training level was not up to par, the army size could be maintained by giving them guns. The only problem was that the casualties were even more severe. However, warships were too valuable. It took several years to build them. It took time to build them. If they were destroyed, they would be useless at that moment.

At this stage, the main fleet of the Alliance withdrew for the sake of caution.

From these situations, many senior generals of the alliance smelled danger.

As the business gets bigger and bigger and goes deeper into the enemy camp, the risks become higher and higher.

To put it bluntly, the Fury Fleet is still not strong enough, but their strategy of trading space for time and space for opportunity has indeed worked.

Under such circumstances, the alliance held several military meetings.

In the end, it was Gu Hang who made the decision.

"At present, we cannot say that the second phase of the war is over. Although we have gained control of 29 worlds in two sectors as expected, and once again consolidated our influence in the Proud Claw sector. However, the expanded scale of the battle has also exposed our slightly vulnerable belly. This second phase of the battle requires everyone to continue to be alert and deal with it well until we can definitely win."

"In response to this situation, we need to change our thinking. We need to switch from comprehensive control and full defense to key area control. For many planets, we can just keep ground control. Will Paulitus come to take these planets back? That is meaningless. We will only take them back again, and there is also the risk of being caught in the process of the operation."

"He wouldn't do such a thing. If he were really stupid, that would be a good thing."

"On the contrary, we will focus on defending some key worlds, such as key transportation routes, and worlds with relatively large industrial output and even shipbuilding capabilities that we have captured, and strengthen the fortification of these worlds. This ensures that when these worlds are attacked, they will not be lost immediately and can wait for our cruising fleet to arrive for reinforcement; our fleet will also escort our key transport teams between star regions. After reducing the number of key worlds that need to be built and defended, transport ships will not need to take so many risks to go to different places, and it will also be convenient for the main fleet to escort while patrolling."

After talking about the defense layout, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Currently, the Alliance occupies nearly fifty worlds in the Aozhua star field. According to Gu Hang, they will abandon about thirty of them and focus on defending less than twenty.

Although giving up does not mean that the world will be taken back by Fury, but in fact it means abandoning thirty worlds. Even if this is a very correct decision, since President Gu is here in person, only Governor Gu has the power to make this decision, and no one else is qualified.

However, how to defend is the current issue, but it is actually not that critical.

The alliance is always the party with the upper hand in terms of power, so they can definitely defend themselves.

The most crucial issue is the upcoming third phase of the war.

The Alliance must continue to fight forward. Otherwise, why would they gather such a large force just to conquer fifty worlds in the Aozhua Star Domain?

Obviously not.

As the alliance's war progress slowed down and it retreated steadily, the political pressure that had gradually subsided due to the alliance's military intervention resurfaced.

It's not as severe as before, but it's gradually getting worse.

Under such circumstances, the alliance's war pace cannot be stopped.

But it is an indisputable fact that the bigger the plate, the higher the risk.

What to do next?
Continue to fight like this?

It was already steady enough, what else could we ask for? But the more we fought, the more precarious the war became.

This still requires Gu Hang, the commander-in-chief, to make the decision.

Gu Hang obviously also thought about this:
"First, we need to steadily defeat the second stage and consolidate the defense and fortification of key worlds. Then we can change our strategy for the third stage. After two stages of offensive, we have established a firm foothold in the Proud Claw Star Region. We have a stable position and room to maneuver. We can take some risks next."

"We no longer need to pursue the control of entire star regions as we did before, but instead adopt a focused offensive approach. The General Staff has set the next three key targets in the entire Aozhua star region, Heyang VIII, Mentus II, and Aoya Star."

Everyone was a little surprised.

There is no problem with the last two worlds, but Heyang VIII will actually become one of the three major targets?

It's a bit strange.

Aoya Star is the capital world of Aozula Star Region, so it makes sense to make it the main target of attack;

Mentus II is a key hub world in the Mentus sector, located in the center of the Proud Claw star field. It not only has a large star port, but most importantly, it has eleven very rare star tunnels connecting to other worlds. This makes its position in the star map very important, and capturing it is of great significance.

As for Heyang VIII...it's a bit strange.

This is a feudal world, and it is under the deep control of the Alfonzo Mechanicus. There are hundreds of small feudal principalities and counties scattered on it, and the whole planet is quite ununited. These small countries are controlled by small knight families. Almost all of them have various types of knight mechas and are ready to obey the church's call at any time.

When they gather together, they become the 'Third Knights of Alfonzo'.

The planet has excellent natural conditions and good agricultural planting conditions. The feudal serfs not only support the knight families on it, but also have enough spare capacity to carry out a large amount of grain trade.

The main trading partner, or tribute recipient, was the Alfondian sect.

In addition, the planet has good mineral resources, and even has three adamantium veins. Protected by the Knights, the Skitarii sent directly by the Mechanicus are stationed in these three mining areas for a long time.

Such a resource world that integrates the "Knight World", "Mineral World" and "Agricultural World" is the core interest of the Alfonzo sect.

The Alfonzi sect has always claimed that they are on the side of the Empire. No matter how ambiguous their attitude is, at least they have not raised the flag openly.

In theory, Heyang VIII, as Alfonzo's core interest, can be ignored.

Make this place one of the three key offensive targets?

There is a deeper meaning behind Governor Gu's visit.

Gu Hang did not explain the reason for this, but continued: "We do not seek to control every planet on the attack route, as long as the planet does not have the conditions for enemy ships to hide. We will directly skip these worlds and attack the three key targets we have planned. Once we complete the conquest, we can immediately declare that we have conquered the Proud Claw Star Region. From this perspective, we are the direction with the most results among the three war zones of the south, west, and north!"

(End of this chapter)