On the day of the incident at Heijian Star, Gu Hang was already informed.
He had also set up a Star Language Tower, albeit with low power, sufficient only for “interstellar phone calls,” unlike some more impressive Star Language Towers that could act like interstellar TV towers, capable of broadcasting across multiple star systems—valuable for both political propaganda and cultural products.
Gu Hang wished to build one of those in the future but given their high costs and the fact that basic interstellar communication was now somewhat functional, the priority for constructing a bigger and better Star Language Tower was not high.
That day, he received a communication request from his cousin. She was on a starship, informing him of the changes on Heijian Star and the fourteen merchant fleets from Gu Commercial Firm gathered in the Heijian Star System, facing internal strife and standoffs against each other.
He immediately began to prepare.
Firstly, military matters, where troops began to assemble on a large scale.
On this front, things went smoothly.
A few months ago, the main force of the alliance had fought a campaign to pacify the three provinces of the Eastern Province, led by Yan Fangxu commanding the Central Group Army. Afterward, when the Eastern Province was stabilized and local militia and security forces were established, the main army corps returned and began to recuperate. The soldiers even received a fairly long period of vacation.
Later, even with conflicts in the North Territory, the Central Group Army main force did not engage; the Northern Frontier Army Group was mostly formed with newly assembled units.
Previous to this, the Central Group Army had already resumed training and ended most soldiers’ holidays.
At this moment, with the call to arms, the entire Central Group Army quickly completed pre-war preparations.
The number of people Gu Hang intended to take was not very large, amounting to only about 35,000 spread among the 1st Brigade, the 2nd Division, the 13th Brigade, and the 36th Brigade.
Among them, the most critical force was the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade.
This unit had gone through another round of restructuring. First off, the tank companies in the five Composite Camps received a full complement of Lion Tanks, unlike other composite brigades which actually only had two tank companies;
The two motorized infantry companies in each Composite Camp were entirely replaced with armored infantry companies;
An additional tank battalion was also formed.
Thus, the total strength of the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade didn’t increase much, still numbering over 8,000 people, but they possessed over 300 various armored vehicles and seventy-five Lion Tanks.
Adding the regular Mechanical Composite Brigades of the 13th and 36th, there would be over a hundred Lion Tanks assembled!
As for infantry, the 2nd Infantry Division had over ten thousand personnel.
This was the composition of Gu Hang’s 35,000-person force.
In addition, there were over a hundred Wind Falcon aircraft in the air force formation, and fifteen interstellar warriors—the reason for the increase from the previous twelve was that three more previously trained warriors had completed the growth of all superhuman organs and achieved the “qualified” standards.
It’s not that he didn’t want to bring more troops, but transport capacity had to be considered.
Strictly speaking, Gu Hang did not have the means for interstellar troop deployment.
Even including the Gu Commercial Firm, the situation was no different.
Previously, when his mother left, she had left behind two ships in orbit around Rage Owl Star, but under the current circumstances, those two ships were of no use.
This is where it’s necessary to discuss the difference between a Chamber of Commerce Fleet and a regular naval fleet.
Or rather, the difference between civilian ships and warships.
It’s not just whether there are weapons on board; the construction costs of the two can differ by tenfold, or even dozens of times, for ships of the same size and specifications.
A starship built as a warship varies greatly in hull strength, ship materials, the initial military-specific design and structure, and power…
All these factors significantly impact the final combat effectiveness.
The two ships Miss Wang Qi left in the Rage Owl Star System could easily transport 30,000 people including equipment across a star system to Heijian Star during peacetime;
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But now, with Heijian Star blockaded and Wang Jiarong anxiously stamping her feet, she couldn’t even send a ship capable of evacuating Wang Qi from the surface—sending one recklessly could result in it being shot down during evacuation or blown up by interstellar interception, an unacceptable loss.
The same principle applies to Gu Hang’s troop deployment. While civilian ships can transport people and equipment, they are defenseless vessels when used as transports between starships and the planet’s surface.
During the descent process, losing one ship could mean the loss of hundreds to thousands of personnel and a large amount of equipment.
Even estimating optimistically and considering Heijian Star’s orbital defenses as the weakest sort, and treating the four merchant fleet squadrons loyal to Gu Ming as fools, a “bathtub crossing the ocean” operation would be fortunate to have half of the landing crafts make it safely to the ground.
Could he tolerate nearly ten to twenty thousand casualties due to troop deployment issues?
Such losses were unacceptable to Gu Hang.
And here lies the value of warships.
Warships, meant for naval battles, can dominate the control of the target Star Domain and suppress planetary orbital defenses. This makes the deployment of troops to the ground much safer.
Even if troops must be deployed under the least favorable conditions, dealing with orbital defenses, military landing crafts equipped on warships have camouflage and energy shields for protection, tougher armor, and a much lower probability of loss.