"The 'God of War' in the past is now too old to be fooled by a lieutenant general who used to be a space pirate. What's there to be scared of after one of his arms was cut off for nothing?"
"The rebels are already caught in chaos. As long as the heavenly soldiers arrive and launch a thunderous attack, the rebels will certainly be obliterated into smithereens!"
"We annihilated the rebels in the Jade Cauldron Sector, and the rebels in the Empyreal Terminus Sector suffered heavy losses in the battle against the Holy League. The final victory will be ours without any trouble!"
It could be said that they were blowing their own trumpet, or that they were trying to numb their nerves and force themselves to be confident in their victory. In short, in less than half a day, inside and outside of the temporary residence on Yellow Dragon Star, such arguments were already flying everywhere and causing a great uproar.
Almost all the nobles below the four Kurfürsten were eager to fight. None of them were as prudent as Song Bugui.
There was another layer of benefits that was not known to outsiders. In the fleets of the rebels commanded by Lei Chenghu right now, a lot of starships and soldiers were from the Adamantine Fleet and the ace fleets. They had been captured by the reformists in the battle of Seven Seas and the battle of the capital.
In other words, those starships had been built by the four families after a hundred years of hard work in the first place!
Those starships had only joined the reformists' side not long ago. The soldiers who were operating the starships could not have all been purged. A lot of personnel from the old system were still retained. Chances were that a lot of them would join their old masters after seeing that the situation was not good.
At the very least, that was what the four Kurfürsten thought confidently.
Therefore, they naturally had to take the lead and try to attract more starships from Lei Chenghu's side. It would be great if they could even capture the starships of other families.
Driven by such complicated and unpredictable thoughts, the fleets stationed in the Yellow Dragon Sector completed their battle preparations as quickly as possible.
Not just the Turnaround Fleet, which was the main force, but also the few orbit defense fleets that were not suitable for large-scale space jumps, and even the replenishment fleets made of half-armed carriers, were also packed with the ambitious Immortal Cultivators who wanted to take advantage of the situation. They were all shouting to "defend the glory of His Majesty".
In the heartlands of the other families, a lot of starships had been gathered in a hurry, too. They requested the jump coordinates of the Jade Tripod Sector so that they could jump over and work together.
Those starships were truly a motley crew. Normally, they would flee at the mere mention of Lei Chenghu's name, but now, they were trying to make up the numbers.
Faced with such a chaotic situation where everyone went their own way and acted on their own accord, the entire Song Family had a headache, but there was nothing they could do.
Song Lixing, on the other hand, was agreeing with Song Bugui's suggestion more and more. It seemed that they really had to think of a way to gather all the big shots in the military together and monitor them closely. Otherwise, who knew if they would bypass Song Bugui and directly give orders to their respective branch fleets to take the initiative to go to war and steal the credit?
Song Bugui's words had completely burned away Song Lixing's rationality. All he could think about now was how to defeat Lei Chenghu and become the new "God of War".
Of course, Song Lixing would never force the big shots of the military to board the flagships under their control. Doing so would be too obvious and too stupid.
Song Lixing knew the mentality of these people very well. He just released the news that he was going to lead some of the senior officials of the Military Committee to board the flagship and "lead the battle against Lei Chenghu personally." The senior officials of the Military Command Department, the Military Political Department, the Military Political Department, the General Staff Department, and the National Defense Committee all swarmed over like flies that smelled something sweet. They couldn't wait to squeeze onto the flagship with him, insisting that they would "lead the battle against the God of War together."
It seemed that none of the nobles of the four families, who regarded honor as their life, were willing to let go of such a great opportunity to 'defeat Lei Chenghu'. None of them were willing to watch Lei Chenghu's head fall into someone else's hands. They would rather huddle together and monitor each other. If they couldn't get Lei Chenghu's head, they couldn't, either!
When the big shots of the military and the grand nobles who were full of confidence boarded the flagship, Song Bugui, the commander of the Heaven's Return Fleet, had been waiting at the entrance with his head lowered.
The big shots with abundant backgrounds, however, did not bother to look at him at all and simply swaggered past him.
It was true that Lei Chenghu's subordinates were in a mess, and victory was within their grasp. After they took back their own starships, they would naturally need to rebuild their own fleet. The Heaven's Return Fleet was just an abnormal product in the transitional period. Was there any need for it to exist?
Song Bugui, as the "Director of Education of the Imperium's Fleet", had been chosen as the commander of the Heaven's Return Fleet only because he had always been mediocre and prudent. He did not have much ambition or strength. He was a guy who could reassure everybody and would not say anything even if someone were to blame him.
Right now, or perhaps in a couple of days at most, he would be of no use at all. Why would they bother with him?
Song Lixing, on the other hand, looked at Song Bugui thoughtfully when he boarded the flagship.
"Chairman …"
When nobody was around, Song Bugui said in a low voice, "So many leaders have boarded our flagship, but there don't seem to be too many guards?"
"It's exactly because there are too many leaders who belong to different factions, and many of them have deep grudges against each other in the past. None of them are reassured that someone else has too many guards. Therefore, I decided to take the lead and not bring anyone else."
Song Lixing explained, "Besides, the elite soldiers under each faction, including the Jin Dan and the Yuanying, have all been assigned to the arsenal warships and assault warships in the frontline, preparing to march into Lei Chenghu's battle formation and reap the heads of Lei Chenghu's soldiers if they are lucky. Which expert would want to watch such great military accomplishments being taken away by somebody else when they are right in front of them?
"Isn't it safe here? You don't want Lei Chenghu's starships to crash into our flagship, do you?"
"How is that possible?"
Song Bugui was amused. "You worry too much, chairman."
"That'll do."
Taking a deep breath, Song Lixing looked at the dense starships that were scattered everywhere through the virtual cabin window. He waved his hands and said, "Let's go. Lei Chenghu's head will certainly be ours!"
Exhaust flames were spurting out, and starlight was shaking. The tides raised by a hundred thousand starships tore apart the three-dimensional space at the same time enshrouded the entire Yellow Dragon Sector. The planets and stars were covered in a colorful veil, reflecting the most dazzling brilliance.
The impatient Return Fleet and the coalition army of nobles marched toward the Jade Tripod Sector aggressively.
The fire of war in the Jade Tripod Sector had been burning for more than half a month. The Jade Tripod Sector and a few resource planets were heavily sieged by the reformists. The entire space zone was filled with the debris of starships and the intense interference field. Tremendous battlefield data could not be transmitted.
It was not until the Return Fleet and the coalition army of nobles jumped to the Jade Tripod Sector that they were able to scan the entire space zone and establish a tactical communication link and a battlefield data model so that they could reach out to the defenders on the ground.
The Yellow Dragon Sector was not far away from the Jade Tripod Sector. It was a rather smooth, short-distance jump. The Return Fleet even maintained a rather complete battle formation. As was often the case in 'blind jumps', the starships were blown everywhere by the four-dimensional storm and scattered within tens of billions of kilometers did not happen.
The latest intelligence that they received greatly boosted the morale of the nobles, too.
First of all, the Jade Tripod Sector and the surface of the few important resource planets were still under their control and had not been breached by the rebels.
It meant that they had solid defenses and supply bases.
Secondly, at a certain coordinate near the orbit of the fourth planet of the Jade Tripod Sector, intense space ripples were spreading out, which looked like the traces of a large-scale jump of a fleet.
It was where the space of the entire Jade Tripod Sector was most vulnerable and had the most natural wormholes. It was also the traditionally busiest jump point. It was the 'iron proof' that Bai Xinghe's troops had fled in a hurry!
Thirdly, the commander of the defenders reported in person that, after a day and a night of fierce fighting, his fleet failed to stop Lei Chenghu's remaining troops after all. Ninety percent of their combat ability had even been knocked out by the enemy.
However, Lei Chenghu did not follow up the victory by annihilating the defenders' fleet and occupying the Jade Tripod Sector. Instead, he chose to clean up the mess, turned around, and fled. Leading the remnants of his fleet, he fled to the fourth planet in the same way as Bai Xingjian did.
According to the commander of the defenders' report, Lei Chenghu was so panicked that he did not even clean up the battlefield. He even abandoned a lot of starships that were relatively slow and retreated from the battlefield without bothering about anything else.
"Lei Chenghu knows that the situation is hopeless. He's ready to run away!"
"He must've known that we were coming. His doom has come!"
"Chase after him. We must not let him get away!"
Fearless optimism was beaming out of every starship of the Heaven Returning Fleet.
On the flagship, the noble lords who had participated in the 'Highest Joint Battle Conference' were celebrating the most glorious' victory 'in advance.
Right now, everything was going well. There was only one last problem left.
First, it was Bai Xingjian. Now, it was Lei Chenghu. The direction where they fled in a hurry was the best jump point of the Jade Tripod Sector, the fourth planet, which was also the center of the tug-of-war between the two parties in the past half month. The entire space zone was filled with intense spiritual and magnetic interference, debris of starships, and space torpedoes that had not been detonated yet. It was essentially covered in thick fog of war. Right now, nobody could tell what was going on in the place. There was no telling how many remaining soldiers Lei Chenghu had left, or what the morale, damage, and combat ability of the remaining soldiers were.
As the nominal commander of the Heaven Returning Fleet, Song Bugui's performance could not have been more 'benevolent'.
He suggested that they should take it slow and send out a small troop of scouts with abundant scanning magical equipment and reconnaissance crystal cameras to figure out the situation around the fourth planet. Then, the main troop would make further plans.
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