Chapter 605: Chapter 350, Tens of Millions of Troops_2
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Following the governor’s request, the number of defending forces in Fino City must be further expanded. The total force is to reach a scale of twenty million.
Among them, a force enjoying the so-called ‘Star Realm Army’ benefits is the most core unit, with a planned total of ten million people, which is half of the total force.
This force will be granted the ‘Salvation Army’ designation.
From this, one can see how arduous Tadeusz’s task is.
In the coming months, he must not only take control of and reform the existing five million native forces but also recruit another fifteen million.
…
The entire government of Mingyan City will go all out to provide Tadeusz with all the necessary support to ensure he can complete the governor’s mission.
The main cooperation is in terms of human resources, which plainly put, is recruitment.
Do not think that just because Mingyan City has a population of three billion, recruitment is an easy matter, as if one could simply grab a mere five thousandths of the population.
It’s not that simple.
The Mingyan City government’s control over the most populous Bottom Nest District and Lower Nest District is inadequate, and this area is already experiencing a plague, with cult activities, rebels, disobedient gangs, and opposition organizations. The government’s organizational power and control over the population are surprisingly weak. There is no such thing as a list going out and people obediently showing up.
Similarly, assembling such a vast military force also poses massive logistics issues that need to be resolved.
With all sorts of objective problems present, the entire government department, under the efforts of Mayor Hu De and the supervision of Lambert, is strenuously working towards this goal.
Lambert anticipated the low administrative efficiency on Korolya, but facing it head-on, he found it to be even more difficult than he had imagined.
Subjectively, it is the people of the Korolya Planetary Government who are too incompetent in their work. The administrative staff is hundreds or even thousands of times larger than that of the Alliance Government, yet their efficiency is shockingly low; objectively, the difficulty has risen exponentially with a several-fold increase in the population managed.
This has resulted in an already challenging objective difficulty paired with substandard subjective capabilities.
Lambert was quite angered but also had to recognize that this was the reality. No matter how dissatisfied he was, what he needed to ensure now was just that these people were diligently working. After clearing out the corrupt individuals and traitors, there was nothing to do about the remaining, less capable people until later.
However low the efficiency might be, no matter how much the rusted gears in the system screeched, no matter how much procedural and result-oriented chaos there was, once the Nest Capital, with its population of three billion, started operating, the power it unleashed was still incredibly terrifying.
Lambert originally thought that achieving the goal would be extremely difficult, yet now it seemed quite hopeful.
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Mingyan City was internally striving to expand its military.
Meanwhile, on this planet, the true main force was deployed in Fino City—or rather, ‘running alongside’ Fino City.
The Dragonhawk Legion’s forces, currently at eighteen million strong, are led by General Hans, with nearly fifty million Planetary Defense Forces; The Rage Bear Legion led by Li Kexi is also among them.
The remaining nearly one hundred million Planetary Defense Forces are stationed in other Nest Capitals, defending against and suppressing the spread of the Plague Cult in their respective regions.
Currently, the main human forces are relying primarily on long-range artillery for combat efforts.
The human self-propelled artillery units fire day and night following ‘Fino City,’ launching no fewer than thirty thousand shells daily at the living city. Even if they can’t break the Void Shield, they keep up the bombardment—to whatever extent it might be in vain or not.
Every now and then, the malevolent heavy artillery inside ‘Fino City’ also fires back at the human artillery formations. Comparatively, the losses suffered are much more significant than those from the human bombardment of the living city.
Moreover, the Plague Demon’s forces also launch periodic raids, causing notable damage.
Such battles are utterly meaningless; Fino City has not reduced its speed at all.
There’s no need to continue this sacrifice; after all, ammunition is quite valuable.
Upon his request, General Hans is now consolidating and organizing the entire force, with tens of millions set to assemble west of Mingyan City.
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Altogether, that’s nearly sixty million people, which of course couldn’t possibly gather in one place. No single battlefield could accommodate such a vast number of troops.
The troops, organized by division, constructed dozens of dense defense lines to the west of Mingyan City, in the direction of ‘Fino City’, each at least a hundred kilometers wide.
When General Hans was about to explain, Gu Hang gave him a clear directive:
“When necessary, we must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, not sparing nineteen million from the Star Realm Army, nor sixty million from the Planetary Defense Force. We must launch a full-scale attack on Fino City.”
General Hans strongly objected.
It wasn’t that he was afraid to die; he just thought it was senseless.
An army is not more effective simply because it’s larger. The battlefield space in Fino City is only so big; on one front, deploying hundreds of thousands to attack is already the limit, as the width of the battlefield is finite. Piling up more people is pointless.
Of course, having sufficient troops means that you could throw in hundreds of thousands, and when they collapse, immediately send in another batch, maintaining a relentless offensive posture.
However, such warfare requires exceptionally strong soldier quality and organization.
General Hans explicitly stated that the only one capable of this was the Star Realm Army.
As for that enormous Planetary Defense Force, could they undertake the same desperate task as the million Star Realm Army soldiers who previously attempted an offensive and were nearly wiped out inside Fino City?
That would be impossible.
The army didn’t have enough strength, morale, or organization for this task. If orders were forced upon them, even with execution squads blocking their retreat, it’s likely the troops would still mutiny: fighting the executioners might, after all, offer some chance of survival.
The role that the Planetary Defense Force could play was only to assist when there were sturdier troops able to hold the line in front; relying on them to act valiantly and take the lead was unrealistic.
In response, Gu Hang expressed understanding. But he still insisted that General Hans must carry out the orders as given.
The orders came with the authority of the battle zone commander.
General Hans had no choice but to comply.
Although the majority of his troops came from the Fatches Tri-Star and even a considerable proportion of his officers had deep ties to the Fatches Family, many people were urging him to keep his distance from the new governor who had usurped the Fatches’ power and to not cooperate with him.
Yet, he still carried out the orders of the battle zone commander.
He remembered his identity in the Star Realm Army, as the Third Group Army of the Dragon Hawk Legion was not a private army of the Fatches family.
Of course, discontent was still present — it was not necessarily his own, but that of the Fatches officers under him. These people would show up at his doorstep daily, weeping, forcing him to send up an impeachment letter to his superiors every other day. And at Envoy Lois’ ship meetings, the Fatches family members would make a big fuss about these same issues every single day.
Envoy Lois was under great pressure too.
Gu Hang, the battle zone commander, had been appointed by her in her capacity as an envoy. If things went south, it wouldn’t mean the end of her political career, but it would still be significantly affected.
However, Madam Lois, who had lived for over three hundred years, had sufficient resilience to endure the pressure.
She single-handedly repelled all the pressure on one hand, and on the other, she did not say anything to Gu Hang.
Even though she too had her doubts, she still chose to place her full trust in Gu Hang.
In employing someone, do not suspect them; at least until Mingyan City falls, her trust would be absolute.
If Mingyan City is lost, then immediately the trust level will drop to zero, and all the backup plans that should be initiated will be set into motion.
She desperately hoped it wouldn’t come to that.