Chapter 715: Chapter 402, You Call This the Planetary Defense Army?_2
The Alliance Army won’t be making any particularly significant moves at the moment, or rather, the major activities began four years ago and have only recently come to fruition.
Initially, the composition of the Alliance Army was quite straightforward. Later, when Korolya, Fatches, and Flying Wing Star gradually fell into Gu Hang’s hands, things became more complicated.
The Planetary Defense Force of Korolya was already split into the Salvation Army and the Defense Army; Fatches and Flying Wing Star also had their own Planetary Defense Armies. On top of that, there was the sequence of the Alliance Army, as well as the combat troop sequences of the Rage Bear Legion and the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps.
Such a complicated military force structure is certainly not conducive to command.
The Rage Bear Legion and Dragonhawk 3rd Corps are not easy to mobilize; these two forces belong to the Star Realm Armed Forces sequence and theoretically have little to do with the Alliance or Star Sector Government. Logistics fall under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Military Department, and command of operations and the appointment and removal of officers are managed by the Star Realm Army Command.
However, just as the Fatches Family once had strong influence over the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps, now, this Star Realm Armed Forces unit of twenty million is actually supported by Gu Hang’s Alliance. Although the costs are formally covered by the Military Affairs Department, the soldiers and officers are all from the Tianma Star Sector, previously under Alliance jurisdiction, making the Alliance’s influence absolutely indispensable.
…
Not to mention the Rage Bear Legion, which is simply a direct conversion from the Alliance Army, from the command system down to the soldiers.
In the past, Gu Hang used to wonder how he could assimilate the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps into his own. Now, he’s found that he doesn’t need to do anything. When he became the ruler of the Tianma Star Sector, in both name and reality, the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps stationed there became his.
Especially since Gu Hang adopted some strategies.
Normally, the Star Realm Army doesn’t entertain the concept of demobilization, as most of their personnel come from Imperial Tax and having been conscripted as such, there is no reason to send them back.
Moreover, the longer the service, the stronger the veterans become, certainly much more so than new recruits.
But that’s assuming they aren’t so old that they can’t even lift a weapon.
People do age, and while they may be in their prime in their thirties and forties, once they reach fifty, the normal human body functions begin to decline significantly, the body can’t keep up with the accumulation of experience. By the age of sixty or seventy, it’s unreasonable to expect them to traverse mountains and rivers carrying heavy loads. At that point, unless promoted to officer rank, continuing to fight on the front lines is simply not suitable.
The Star Realm Army, constantly engaged in battle at the front, can have veterans who have survived for decades, let alone those assigned to rear-guard duties.
Typically, the Star Realm Army is quite generous to veterans who have been fighting on the front lines for a long time, accrued a distinguished service record, and survived. If a veteran has continued to live, they are either promoted to officer ranks or, if unsuitable for officer duty, are settled in place upon reaching retirement age. A substantial sum of money and a comfortable, well-paid position on a local or rear-guard planet are standard procedures.
Those left behind in the rear are a bit less fortunate.
However, Gu Hang does not intend to handle things this way.
In fact, the Star Realm Army does have a standard retirement process. Personnel of a certain age—not necessarily old—can be arranged for retirement, but if veterans retire as early as thirty or thirty-five, how will the military’s combat power decline be addressed, and how will new personnel be replaced? The former is almost irreplaceable, and the latter would also require additional Imperial resources to draft new Imperial Tax recruits. It’s a loss, and neither the Military Affairs Department nor the specific Star Realm Forces would do such a thing, rendering the standard retirement process virtually inoperative.
After numerous discussions with the Dragonhawk Legion, General Hans agreed to a large-scale retirement process for the old soldiers but also stipulated some conditions:
Within the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps, veterans, particularly those over 30 and especially over 35 years of age, would be retired in batches, and the Alliance would handle their resettlement;
The Alliance would be responsible for replacing the missing personnel, adhering to the standards of the Star Realm Army;
Gu Hang agreed to all these conditions.
Those over 30/35 years of age who retire are not dead; there are plenty of opportunities for them to be resettled locally after switching careers. Departments like the police force, anti-corruption, and intelligence services are all willing to take them; if there are excesses that can’t be absorbed, there are many industries and industrial regions that need manpower.
Even, those who were locally adjusted to some Planetary Defense Army units essentially turned the old Star Realm soldiers into the backbone of their own Defense Forces, which is undeniably beneficial.
Members of the Star Realm Army, particularly those from the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps who have mostly remained in reserve duties and are not exceptionally distinguished, nor too old, don’t need to be placed in especially comfortable and lucrative positions like retired heroes.
As for Gu Hang’s gains, they lay in his ability to complete a ‘Blood Exchange’ of the Dragonhawk Legion.
The supplemental troops had to meet the standards of the Star Realm Army. Where would these people come from? Gu Hang would transfer them from the Alliance Army, which had completed the Army Badge training.
The Dragonhawk 3rd Corps had been stationed in Korolya for over eight years, and even the younger soldiers in the unit had, after these eight years, normally aged to over 30/35 years old.
Once the ‘Blood Exchange’ reached a certain extent, the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps would no longer be the same as before.
Of course, in essence, it was still the Star Realm Army. This was also true for the Rage Bear Legion. The Military Affairs Department and the Star Realm Army Command had the authority to transfer these two units to take on other tasks.
But it wasn’t so easy to transfer them, not like before. Now, Gu Hang’s voice was hard to ignore.
Moreover, if there were conflicts near the Star Sector, have them transferred to fight was not necessarily a bad thing.
So far, the Alliance had expanded to its limits through normal means. Without the support of Star Sector leaders or unexpected events, Gu Hang found it difficult to reach beyond the territories of the Star Sectors.
That is why Gu Hang indeed had thoughts of using the Star Realm Army to wage war abroad and further expand the Alliance. However, this idea was not yet mature, with many issues to resolve. Additionally, the Alliance’s main task was still to digest internally, to solidify the current territories as core lands, with no energy left to focus outward.
But at the very least, Gu Hang had to keep this option open, ready to take advantage when an opportunity arose. Once the Star Realm Army moved out, the Alliance would follow and look for chances.
Even during these peaceful years, supporting the Star Realm Army was not a loss for the Alliance.
It could offset taxes.
The Dragonhawk 3rd Corps maintained a size of twenty million, while the Rage Bear Legion had expanded to about ten million over these years. The equipment standards remained high. Maintaining these thirty million troops alone cost over a billion Tax Currency a year.
That is, they could offset a billion in Imperial Tax for the Alliance annually.
Besides the thirty million soldiers of the Star Realm Army, the Alliance abolished the Salvation Army structure in Korolya and the whole Defense Forces system within the Alliance, replacing the Planetary Defense Army entirely with the Alliance Army structure.
The overall size of the Alliance Army was around four hundred million, with three hundred million stationed in Korolya.
Gu Hang could not and did not need to train these four hundred million using the Army Badge System to be qualified soldiers.
In fact, only one hundred million completed system training; the remaining three hundred million were trained using conventional methods.
But with 25% core members leading and supported by logistics that met Star Realm Army standards, reaching the combat strength of a standard Star Realm Army in four years of training was not a big problem. Currently, the proportion of Alliance Army soldiers who met the standards of the Star Realm Army could reach 85%, which was already better than many regular Star Realm Armed Forces units.
Not to mention, Gu Hang had established many elite divisions within them.
These elite divisions, internally called ‘Skeleton Divisions’, often had stronger equipment, such as rifles fully replaced with laser or Gauss rifles; equipped with more heavy explosive machine guns and various types of bombs; equipped with plasma weapons and thermite weapons; armored units with higher density of armored vehicles, equipped with Lion King Tanks; reconnaissance units even extravagantly equipped with Sentry Mecha.
Even more, there were higher-tier divisions with special numbers, which even had a large proportion of Exoskeleton Armor issued to the soldiers; some vanguard companies were even outfitted with a large number of ‘Servant God’ Feedback-Type Power Armor.
Let alone those special numbered elite units, even the Skeleton Divisions could make General Hans of the Dragonhawk Legion feel sour.
Damn it, even the Defense Army’s equipment outclassed our legitimate Star Realm Army’s!
Where’s the justice in that?