Li Yao blinked and thought to himself that the 'Battle of Black Wind' was almost the source of everything.
It was exactly because of the Battle of Black Wind that the remnants of the Black Wind Fleet marched to the edge of the cosmos, leading to the formation of the 'New Federation' in the worlds at the edge of the cosmos.
It was also because of the brutal failure of the Imperium of True Human Beings in the Battle of Black Wind that the constant reforms in the past hundred years loosened the reign of the four Kurfürst families and even gave birth to the reformists and careerists such as Li Linghai.
Right now, even the legend of General Lei Chenghu was related to the Battle of Black Wind.
Li Linghai sighed and said, "In the past thousand years, the Imperium and the Holy League competed for the hegemony at the center of the cosmos. Although the Holy League attacked on a large scale time and time again aggressively, the Imperium always held the defense line and did not show any obvious signs of decline.
"It was especially so in the past few hundred years. The attacks of the Holy League were more and more disordered and hasty. Many leadership of the Imperium believed that the national strength of the Holy League had been seriously exhausted. Despite the brainwashing techniques such as the 'Three Fundamental Laws' that could trick the people to dedicate their lives to their 'god', they gradually could not hold on any longer.
"Therefore, the Imperium was filled with optimism, believing that the day when the Holy League collapsed without a fight would come if the defense line was defended for another few hundred years.
"But the Battle of Black Wind poured a bucket of cold water that was mixed with ice into everyone's spine.
"The entire defense line on the cantilever arm completely collapsed. Quite a few Deep Sky fleets suffered destructive strikes. The five war worlds including the Black Wind Fleet all fell into the hands of the Holy League, making the Holy League's unstoppable vanguard reach the softest abdomen of the Imperium. The Holy League's fleets were coveting the prosperous lands that the Imperium had been building for a thousand years!"
Li Yao asked, "War worlds?"
"That's right. According to the amount of resources and the level of development, the Imperium has roughly divided the Sectors within its territory into four levels, namely 'undeveloped worlds, resource worlds, industrial worlds, and war worlds'."
Li Linghai said, "A war world is the level with the highest comprehensive value. It is a super heavy industrial world with the deepest industrial foundation. It boasts enormous weapon factories, magical equipment assembly lines, and even space docks. It can produce an entire enormous fleet on its own and is heavily guarded by the army of the Imperium.
"The value of a warring world far exceeds ten worlds that have yet to be developed!
"The five worlds, including the Black Wind Sector, are all important military bases that the empire has operated for hundreds of years. Now that they have fallen into the enemy's hands, who knows how much resources have been lost and how many secrets have been leaked. Therefore, they are the biggest threat to the empire in the past hundreds of years.
"After receiving the news that the five war worlds at the border had fallen, the noble lords in the capital were naturally dumbfounded. They were immediately enraged and wanted to launch a counterattack.
"Other than the elites of the four Kurfürst families who have been sent to the frontline incessantly, the troops of the nobles and the warlords will naturally be summoned to 'defend the Imperium'.
"At that moment, the consequences of the four Kurfürst families' years of control over the court, which resulted in the fragmentation of the places, were immediately revealed.
"Most of the smaller nobles and warlords in the local areas were perfunctory and hesitant. They all believed that there was no need for them to go to the frontline as cannon fodder since the elites of the four Kurfürst families were fighting in the front.
"The most sordid and shameless ones among them were the warlords who were entrenched in the Black Wind Sector at the beginning.
"The responsibility for the collapse of the entire defense line of the Black Wind Sector was supposed to fall on the Black Wind Fleet's head in the first place. Since the Black Wind Sector that had fallen was their hometown, the people of the Black Wind Fleet should've reclaimed their lost homeland without caring about the cost, shouldn't they?
"However, Heiye Ming, who commanded the Black Wind Fleet at that time, was an old and cunning warlord. He simply swallowed the remaining fleets of the other four war worlds brazenly, which gave him enough leverage to bargain with the capital. Taking advantage of the chaos in the frontline, he fled to the edge of the cosmos in the name of helping the Imperium expand the territory!
"Hehe. Although the journey to explore the edge of the cosmos was long and dangerous, it could not have been more dangerous than dealing with the army of the Holy League that was right next to him. If he really wanted to 'expand the territory', he could've simply turned around and marched back to his hometown. Why did he have to abandon what was close at hand for what was far away?"
Li Yao: "… Well, the commander of the Black Wind Fleet was truly shameless!"
But he smiled bitterly in his heart. This was already the third theory about the expedition of the Black Wind Fleet to the edge of the cosmos. Everybody involved was flattering themselves. As for what the truth was exactly, it must've been obliterated in the scraps of the stars, and there was no way to verify it.
Li Linghai despised what the Black Wind Fleet did very much. His voice turned cold as he said, "Since the people of the Black Wind Fleet, the 'victims' of the fallen worlds, were running away in such a panic, the private troops of the lords and the warlords were even more reluctant to help the entire Imperium fight the army of the Holy League that had been winning all the battles.
"The four Kurfürst families did not want to waste their elite troops for nothing, either. At the very least, they were unwilling to charge forward and fight the Holy League in the first wave. Therefore, they thought of General Lei Chenghu's fleet."
Li Yao exclaimed and said, "It was a scheme to kill two birds with one stone!"
"Exactly. Even a blind man could've seen that the four Kurfürst families were trying to kill their enemy with a borrowed knife. Whether or not the Holy League's attack was repelled, General Lei Chenghu's strength would've been significantly diminished at the very least."
Li Linghai said, "If General Lei Chenghu is truly a great warlord who hides his ambitions deeply as everybody thought at that time, he could've totally ignored the order from the capital, or he could've simply sent out some random cannon fodder to make up the numbers like other warlords.
"After all, with General Lei's strength at that time that was vaguely uniting the peripheral worlds of the fourth quadrant, what could the four Kurfürst families have done to him as long as he did not show up?
"It was not like they had to fight on two fronts, dealing with the Holy League in the frontline and declaring war on General Lei in the rear at the same time, right?"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao bulged his eyes and asked, "But General Lei still obeyed the order of the Council of Elders and went to the frontline with his own elite troops?"
"Exactly. Also, General Lei was even more ruthless than you. Not only did he bring all his elite troops, he also tried his best to bring the 'Sailing Route Guards', which were the elites of the dozens of worlds at the periphery of the fourth quadrant, to form an overwhelming coalition army and marched to the frontline of the Black Wind Sector as fast as possible!"
Li Linghai sighed and said, "At that time, General Lei's prestige in the dozens of worlds nearby was unparalleled. Many fleets were under his control and command. But the masters of those fleets, the nobles and the warlords, gave the fleets to General Lei because they believed that General Lei could bring them benefits. They even attacked the privateer fleets in the other few quadrants and claimed all the trophies back. In other words, they were going to make a fortune, not to be killed with General Lei!"
Li Yao blinked for a long time and found it hard to believe. "So to speak … General Lei was not only going to be an idiot himself but also leading the elites of dozens of worlds to be the biggest idiots in the world!"
"Yes. The universe is a vast place. It was not difficult to block the news at all. When the nobles and the warlords who ruled the dozens of Sectors finally realized what was going on, it was already too late for them to catch up. Their elites had all vanished into the depths of the universe, never to return."
Li Linghai smiled and said, "You should be able to imagine that General Lei's crazy move completely pissed off all the nobles and warlords in the fourth quadrant, cutting off his own retreat. The package agreement of the 'Sailing Route Guards' immediately collapsed, too.
"Right now, General Lei only had a coalition fleet that was enormous in scale but had no foundation, and all the supplies were under the control of the Council of Elders, or the four Kurfürst families.
"As expected, the Council of Elders deployed the coalition fleet that General Lei brought to the most dangerous frontline, too.
"Faced with the overwhelming assault of the Holy League, General Lei did not complain at all, nor did he hesitate at all. Instead, he reversed the situation and fought bloody battles for five years. Almost all his own subordinates and elites were defeated, blocking the overwhelming attacks of the Holy League.
"Although he failed to take back the five worlds including the Black Wind Sector, he did establish an impregnable defense line again, stalling the people of the Holy League in front of him.
"In the hundred years that followed, General Lei's fleet was stationed in the frontline all the time, blocking the Holy League like an iron wall. Not a single starship of the Holy League was allowed to cross the line anymore.
"It is safe to say that, starting from the Battle of the Black Wind Sector, the dirtiest and most exhausting work on the battlefield of the Imperium in the past hundred years were all done by General Lei alone. That was why the troops and resources in the rear could be accumulated, deployed, and operated unhurriedly. Also, the aggressiveness of the Holy League had been worn out by General Lei. That was why the counterattack of the Imperium of such an enormous scale went so smoothly."
After hearing that, Li Yao took a long breath in relief. "So to speak, this General Lei Chenghu is really not an ambitious schemer but a … well, an honorable, selfless soldier?"
"Yes. For a warlord, troops and territory are inseparable. Although General Lei had an enormous coalition fleet with astonishing combat ability under his command, he had lost his own territory a long time ago. Everything was under the control of the Council of Elders."
Li Linghai said, "As he fought bloody battles without caring about his own life on the battlefield time and time again, everybody gradually saw General Lei's sincerity. Even the four Kurfürst families respected General Lei's integrity. Or rather, if they killed General Lei, there was no telling where they could find such an honest, unambitious man who was good at fighting.
"The Council of Elders and the four Kurfürst families were in dire need of 'real soldiers loyal to the Imperium' such as General Lei Chenghu to resist the Holy League in the frontline. In the hundred years that followed, they completely lowered their wariness of General Lei. The supplies and logistics for the 'Thunder Fleet' under his command were unhindered, too. General Lei was given all kinds of compliments without any cost.
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