“We aim for a quick victory,” but the battles on the Alliance’s Western Front still dragged on for half a year.
By the time nearly a month had elapsed, the following seven hundred thousand Star Realm Army troops had already arrived at the frontline.
In total, the Alliance Army’s one million three hundred thousand troops could be described as advancing irresistibly in the five months that followed, yet they were briefly suppressed by the Mechanical Legion of Blackbird Heavy Industries in some engagements.
This side fact highlighted how absurd Cai Minjin’s original plan of achieving results in three weeks, wrapping up the fight in six weeks, and heading back to the Fatches Star System for the New Year was.
If you asked Yan Fangxu about the root cause, he believed it was the combat effectiveness of the Dragonhawk Third Legion’s Star Realm Army not meeting expectations.
In the strictest sense, according to the most standard requirements of the empire, the combat effectiveness of the Star Realm Army should be strong. In terms of soldier quality, it should be the best of the best.
The armies of the Alliance, under the miraculous training of the governor’s boot camps, barely met the minimum requirements for the Star Realm Army’s new recruits.
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However, reality begged to differ.
From what Yan Fangxu saw, the Dragonhawk Third Legion was indeed a formal Star Realm Army formation, and while it wasn’t a well-known legion, logic dictated that it should at least not be worse than the Alliance’s forces, right?
But in reality, it was a notch lower.
Take for example a so-called large regimental formation; normally, it would consist of nine enhanced regiments, of which only about two would reach the level of Alliance soldiers, and the rest… it’s not to say they were just making up numbers, but they were certainly stronger than average soldiers. For instance, the Soldiers of the Luman Kingdom they encountered on Heijian Star were far inferior to them.
Yet, compared to the level of Alliance soldiers, it still fell short.
That was just the issue with the quality of soldiers—Yan Fangxu was still unimpressed by their equipment.
This Star Realm Army lacked even enough troop transport vehicles.
If it weren’t for the Alliance’s ample logistical support, which mobilized a large number of civilian vehicles and newly constructed trains to help with transportation, this Star Realm Army would have had to rely on marching thousands of kilometers on foot to reach the Western Front battlefield.
By the time they got there, the war might well be over.
The Alliance’s forces, even the third-tier garrison divisions, combined infantry with heavy artillery, albeit in smaller numbers. But these large regimental formations of the Star Realm Army didn’t have such integrated units; infantry regiments were just infantry, artillery regiments were just artillery, and armored regiments were just armor.
Yan Fangxu didn’t comment much on this, perhaps it was just a difference in military philosophy. Maybe the troops of the Dragonhawk Third Legion believed in concentrating firepower and armor, which wasn’t necessarily wrong.
Such military formations might be able to exert greater strength in major decisive battle scenarios?
But no matter whether it’s concentrating firepower and armor, or the Alliance Army’s multi-branch composite units that gather firepower and armor when necessary, the overall number of various fire support and technical equipment must be sufficient, right?
Under one of their large regimental formations with over forty thousand troops, they were already comparable to four brigades of the Alliance. Yet within it, there was only one armored regiment with just over a hundred armored vehicles and forty tanks.
Compared to the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade with its mere nine thousand troops, they boasted eighty tanks and over two hundred armored vehicles.
The vehicles and tanks of a single Wind-Extinguishing Brigade matched that of two large regiments of the Dragonhawk Legion.
If that’s not a disparity, what is?
Even among pure infantry, whether it’s the infantry companies in composite brigades or the troops under the infantry divisions, all had completed motorization and had dedicated military vehicles down to the squad level; each squad had two to three rocket launchers, each platoon had one to two mortars; each company had a heavy grenade launcher as a fire support point.
The Star Realm Army’s infantry regiments also had these things, but they were all concentrated at the regiment level and were also fewer in number.
The differences in troop quality and weaponry led to differences in combat performance during the six months of battle.
Oftentimes, within the same timeframe, the progress made by a large forty-thousand-strong Star Realm Army regiment was comparable to that made by two twenty-thousand-strong Alliance brigade regiments.
The Alliance was able to achieve the same results with half the number of troops as those of the Dragonhawk Legion’s soldiers.
In the half-year battle at Rage Owl Star, Cai Minjin didn’t make any further trouble. He dutifully played his role as the second-in-command of the Alliance Army and took care of his own responsibilities.
On one hand, Commander Matins had overshadowed him in terms of legitimacy and status. On the other hand, the combat effectiveness demonstrated by the Alliance forces in actual combat left him with nothing to say.
However, in the final stage of the war, a conflict still arose between the two sides.
It was when the enemy had almost been entirely wiped out, leaving only one final strategic target—Blackbird City.
Matins devised an attack plan, with the Alliance Army spearheading the assault.
But here, Cai Minjin unusually raised an objection.
Such an incident hadn’t occurred in the past half year.
And both Matins and Yan Fangxu understood the thoughts of General Cai.
He might have been here on a mission.
Though the Fatches Family were not the masters of Dragonhawk 3rd Corps, they still had significant influence over this troop that was mainly sourced in manpower and supplies from three worlds within the Fatches Star System. It was indeed normal for Cai Minjin to have received some special instruction upon leaving.
And this instruction was surely related to Blackbird Heavy Industries.
The supposed administrator of Blackbird Heavy Industries, Irong Fatches, was still untraceable.
In the previous battles, they had repeatedly encountered spider-type mechanical monsters bearing the face of Irong Fatches. Their combat ability was secondary; what was most crucial was that she always seemed to play a key role in the information and command nodes of the Mechanical Legion. Eliminating her would greatly disrupt the strategic coordination capabilities of the Mechanical Legion.
But clearly, these were not really Irong Fatches herself.
Her actual body was surely still in the center of Blackbird City.
Cai Minjin’s mission, presumably, was to destroy all evidence that connected Blackbird with the Fatches Family.
Even though the existence of Irong Fatches and the Fatches Family’s investment in Blackbird Heavy Industries made their relationship indelible, they were already striving to sever ties, and with the added aggressive attitude, destroying the evidence would make things much more comfortable.
In such a situation, Cai Minjin indeed did not wish for the Alliance to lead this assault.
Even if his own corps suffered considerable casualties in the final attack, he was determined to take on this mission.
Matins thought for a moment and decided not to confront this rare show of backbone from the imperial major general.
Half a year’s peaceful wartime cooperation owed much to this general. Thus, it was appropriate to give him some face in this last battle.
He made a decision to let the two forces, one from the south and one from the north, launch a pincer attack on Blackbird City.
A fair competition, whoever entered the city first would be king, would that not suffice?
Cai Minjin knew this was the best outcome he could possibly have secured.
He went back to start preparing his troops, secretly summoning several officers to discuss the battle plans.
Although the Alliance Army, bearing the name of the Planetary Defense Force, had left a big impression on him, making him dare not underestimate this force that was even stronger than the actual Star Realm Army, he was still determined to win this all-important strategic battle.
Then, he heard a piece of news:
After the military conference, Commander Matins, personally escorted by thirty fully-armed Phoenix soldiers, went north.
It was clear he intended to personally join the battle, entering the combat sequences on the side of the Alliance.
Inside the command center of the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps, the once lively strategic discussion abruptly ceased.
In a silent room, Cai Minjin furiously threw the document in his hand and burst out cursing:
“Can’t you play fair?!”