To be fair, the noble families of the Kurfürst's coalition army were not all idiots who were blinded by greed. Bai Xingjian's mutiny and Lei Chenghu's chaos were too abrupt. It was indeed easy for them to think that certain dangerous traps had been set up in the dark, unpredictable universe of the Jade Tripod Sector.
However, in the history of the world, whether or not traps worked had little to do with the sophistication of the traps themselves. What mattered more was whether or not the bait inside the traps was plump and tempting enough, and whether or not the beasts that walked to the front of the traps were hungry enough.
People often only believed what they were willing to believe. A beast that had been driven mad by hunger could only see the fresh meat and smell the greasy fragrance, but it could not see the shining teeth inside the traps at all.
The coalition army of the Kurfürst's coalition army was exactly such an animal that was dizzy from hunger and did not care about anything.
As the son of the Kurfürst, Song Lixing's strategic vision and wariness were not necessarily inferior to Song Bugui's. However, what he said to Song Bugui was absolutely correct. Whether or not to attack the Jade Tripod Sector was not a military issue but a political one.
The reformists were having a hard time, and the four Kurfürst families were having an even harder time. After two consecutive crushing defeats, more than seventy percent of the most elite warships and well-trained elites were lost. The influence was not just limited to the battlefield. A series of disastrous consequences were gradually surfacing.
Every day, countless demonstrations and illegal meetings would break out in the territory of the four families.
Every day, countless rumors would be spread out in the form of flyers or secret channels, promoting the ideas of the reformists to "bewilder the ignorant people".
Every day, countless middle- and bottom-level nobles would contact the capital stealthily and be promised by the capital that as long as they responded to the "reformists", not only would their crimes be forgiven, but they would also be given a share of the fat bodies of the big nobles.
Such demonstrations, conspiracies, and betrayals were as numerous as the hairs on an ox. Suppressing them with force alone was not enough.
Besides, the four Kurfürst families could not spare enough forces to suppress the surging riots at all.
In the final analysis, in the Imperium that believed in the law of the jungle and that the winner was king, if you suffered one defeat after another on the battlefield, you would lose all your power of deterrence and suppression. Who would submit to you?!
There were also resources. Simply put, it was money.
As the commander of the fleet, Song Bugui did not care where the military expenses of the Sky Reversal Fleet and the cost of maintaining the palace came from, but the four Kurfürsten had to go through all the trouble for a coin. Ever since the capital fell into the hands of the reformists, the credit of the "Imperium's crystal coins" that were issued by the court plummeted. Not just in the peripheral worlds, they were not very useful even in the few central worlds under the four families' governance. Some people were even willing to trade with the "free coin" or use a few special crystals as hard currencies instead of the crystal coins of the Imperium.
Force could take the lives of those who resisted.
But it was impossible for force to suppress the resistance of capital.
After all, when the executors of the force — the soldiers and the low-level officers — were unwilling to accept the crystal coins of the Imperium as their pay, even the most powerful force would collapse and be gone forever.
Right now, with the abundant assets that they had accumulated in the past hundreds of years, the four families could still manage to support the last tiny bit of credit of the crystal coins of the Imperium. They could even adopt the primitive approaches such as "military notes", "treasury bonds", and "barter". But everybody knew how inefficient and unsustainable such a way of trade was in an informationized society that spanned billions of lightyears.
It did not take a lot of professional financial experts to estimate that the four Kurfürst families were very clear that without a gratifying victory to boost the morale and the people's confidence in the crystal coins of the Imperium, the economic foundation of the entire "rightful government of the Imperium of True Human Beings" would be obliterated.
It was exactly the truth that Song Lixing said when he was exasperated. Without money, who the f * ck would know whether you were a Kurfürst or Emperor Chengwu?
Other than that, the most critical and critical point was that the coalition army of the Kurfürst families did not have a clear understanding of the scale and combat ability of the main-force fleet of the Holy League.
It was only natural.
Since the very beginning, the "Council of Elders", which was controlled by the four Kurfürst families, had persisted. The counterattack of the Imperium in the past twenty years had been a gratifying victory. The main force of the Holy League had been crushed unstoppably, and the people of the Holy League were all driven back to their barren, desolate hometown. The people of the Holy League could not cause any trouble at all.
As for Lei Chenghu's argument that the main force of the Holy League had not suffered heavy losses and was still looking for opportunities for a final battle in the darkness, the noble lords in the court all scoffed at it.
Although such an argument was partly self-aggrandizing, after twenty years of bragging, many nobles had been so immersed in the lies of victory that they were convinced of their own bragging.
The four Kurfürst families did not have any omniscient deities. How could they have foreseen that the main force of the Holy League was not only intact but also controlled by "Fuxi", a super crystal processor that had been passed on from the primeval era and had the highest computational ability in the entire Pangu universe so far?
Therefore, in the study of the four Kurfürst families, the overall scale and combat ability of the invasion fleet of the Holy League had been reduced by at least 70% compared to the real data.
Inputting the greatly reduced raw data into the crystal processor for strategic deduction, a very "terrifying" conclusion was reached.
The attacks of the Holy League were just harassment or revenge in fury at best. Unwilling to accept that the dozens of Sectors had been taken away for nothing, they launched their revenge on the capital without bothering about anything.
Or rather, the Holy League was playing a diversion. On the surface, they were attacking the capital, but in fact, their target was still the dozens of Sectors that had just been lost.
In other words, it was possible for the "reformists" to defend the Empyreal Terminus Sector.
That was not good at all.
No matter how the noble families refused to admit it on the surface, the fact was that the reformists had bewitched most of the people and the bottom-level Immortal Cultivators in the Imperium. With a certain "righteousness" in their hands, they were more and more popular.
The few battles on the Kurfürst families' side had been a mess, which could not have been more disappointing. If the reformists defeated the invaders of the Holy League and defended the Empyreal Terminus Sector, wouldn't they be even more convinced that the reformists were the true masters of the capital?
As a result, the people's hearts would be more attracted to the reformists, and the Kurfürst families would truly be killed without a burial ground.
Therefore, the battle had to be fought and won. While the reformists were divided into two directions and one of Lei Chenghu's arms were cut off, they had to annihilate the reformists completely in order to regain the strategic initiative.
It was some sort of "unwavering belief", right?
In the next twelve hours, more precise intelligence was sent to the palace in the Yellow Dragon Sector.
According to reliable sources, Lei Chenghu and Bai Xingjian, the two "bandits", had been in conflicts in the past half month and had accumulated deep contradictions.
The biggest contradiction was whether the troops should stop to take a breather and take a good rest.
Although the reformists' attack on the Jade Tripod Sector seemed to be proceeding smoothly without much resistance, they were attacking an enormous planet with a tiny fleet after all. Also, they had wasted a lot of fuel, ammunitions, and the strength of the soldiers after several "besieging" attacks.
Although they did not take down the Jade Tripod Sector, they had captured tremendous starships and assets in the space fortress.
Bai Xingjian suggested that the troops should pause the attack for three days to digest the assets in the starships and the fortress. Otherwise, the battle would have been too arduous.
Lei Chenghu, however, turned down his proposal brutally and berated him mercilessly, claiming that it was a bandit's style and that the suppression on the Jade Tripod Sector should not be stopped for one second until the defenders surrendered. If the defenders were given a chance to take a rest, all their previous efforts would be in vain.
Neither party's ideas were wrong, but their stances were subtly different. Lei Chenghu was dedicated to the new Imperium and would not hesitate to fight to the death, but Bai Xingjian was more selfish and considered the fleet under his command to be his own property. How could he allow the capital that allowed him to roam in the sea of stars to be wasted in the civil war of the Imperium?
That was the starting point of their disagreement. The fiercer the battle later, the deeper the gap between the two of them became, until the news that the Xing Yao Federation refused to send troops was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Bai Xingjian indeed carried out the shameless style of a bandit. While Lei Chenghu's troops were attacking the Jade Tripod Sector No. 1 satellite, he retreated at full speed without bothering about anything, completely exposing Lei Chenghu's flanks. When he retreated, he also took away most of the trophies from the previous phase of the battle, including the starships that were almost intact.
The commander of the defenders of the Jade Tripod Sector was a smart man. He took the opportunity to break out of the atmosphere and attack Lei Chenghu's vulnerable flanks, dragging the almighty 'God of War' ''s fleet into the muddy, chaotic battle. To this moment, the chaotic battle was still going on. Even the most brilliant commander could not perform at all. It was all about morale, courage, and blood. In that regard, the reformists, who had received bad news time and time again, were definitely not at an advantage.
Of course, most of the main-force warships of the defenders of the Jade Tripod Sector had been broken or taken away by Bai Xingjian. The defenders only had a few destroyers left that could deal with the enemy in the orbit. After such a long time, Lei Chenghu would naturally be able to get rid of the chaos, clean up the mess, and swallow the defenders.
Therefore, the defenders of the Jade Tripod Sector were in desperate need of the reinforcements from the army of the Yellow Dragon Sector so that they could have the final word!
The unquestionable military intelligence ignited the fire of war in the bottom of all the nobles' hearts.
Cowardice and arrogance were two sides of the same coin. The most cowardly mind was more likely to be burnt by the unsubstantial fire, even though the brilliance could only last a moment.
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