Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1406
"However, the greedy, shortsighted guys in the Council of Elders and the base of the expedition army threw my kind advice aside again. They pushed forward recklessly like wild dogs that had smelled meat, until when dozens of Sectors are swallowed today, making the pressure on defense and logistics higher than ever.
"You know what fear is now, and you want to stop while you still can?
"Let me tell you, it's too late!
"The Covenant Alliance will absolutely not stand by and watch the Imperium revives the recovered territory. In the past ten years, our army has conquered so many habitable planets and resource planets, but we never found any sign of the main force of the Covenant Alliance, which is the greatest hidden problem!
"I guarantee with the head on my neck that before long, perhaps when the noble lords in the court of the Imperium are struggling against each other while negotiating how the 'fruits of victory' should be divided, the main force of the Covenant Alliance will certainly march out from the least expected coordinates and launch the counterattack of the greatest scale so far. If our army cannot resist the counterattack, not only will we lose all the recovered worlds, we will even completely lose the strategical initiative of the war. Our heartland will be exposed to the edge of the Covenant Alliance at the mercy of our enemy!
"It is barely possible for us to get out of the peril. You people who sit in the offices daydreaming before the crystal processors are truly hilariously ignorant!
"The best defense is attack. Before, I did not support launching such an immature counterattack, but now that the counterattack has been carried out for such a long time, objection won't help anything anymore. Instead of distributing the precious forces to the dozens of Sectors that have just been recovered and are seriously short of resources, I would rather concentrate all the soldiers and continue pushing forward to the heartland of the Covenant Alliance!
"In order to completely break through the Covenant Alliance's last defense line and force the enemy's main force into a decisive battle, the scale of the expedition army must be expanded by at least 20%!"
20%!
The three investigators including Dongfang Bai were completely dumbfounded. Looking at each other in bewilderment, they did not know what to say for a long time.
"I know that there are difficulties. But no war comes easily."
Lei Chenghu said casually, "I have carefully studied all the economic policies and regulations of awards and punishments that are implemented in the general mobilization. It occurs to me that you have neither explained the great significance of the war and the dangerous situation the Imperium is faced with to the people, nor completely trigger the people's resolution to sacrifice everything for the civilization of mankind.
"In my eyes, there are still great potentials to be dug out in the rear. I am writing an article named 'Strategies of the Next Phase', in which I have described a 'concentration camp system'. It is supposed to be used on the people of the newly-recovered space zones who have been seriously brainwashed by the Covenant Alliance. But at such a critical moment, it wouldn't hurt to set up certain 'concentration camps' in the worlds that are deeply polluted by the ideas of the Cultivators with riots happening all the time. I believe that it will significantly increase the work efficiency of the hominoids and their patriotism. At the very least, it will greatly lower their consumption, save more resources, and ensure the supply in the frontline.
"All in all, the war has reached the most critical moment. The Imperium and the Covenant Alliance are like two bulls who stick each other with their horns. Both of them are panting and exhausted. All that matters is who collapses first. Everything will be doomed when one of them shows the slightest sign of collapse!
"Therefore, from now on, we must be prepared to fight for another five to ten years and sacrifice at least fifty billion people. If you want to win, the Council of Elders must consider my strategies carefully."
Dongfang Bai swallowed hard and slightly stepped back, as if a ferocious tiger surrounded by ghostly fire would rip apart the barrier of the space and tore his throat directly.
"The Council of Elders will never agree to such a crazy plan."
The head of the special agents swallowed hard, his voice shivering like a flickering candle. "Besides, the local nobles and warlords are already complaining and resisting openly and secretly at the current intensity of resource supply. How can we further intensify the general mobilization?"
Lei Chenghu smiled. With a "I knew you cannot achieve it" look on his face, he changed the topic and said, "If you can't, just prepare for a strategic retreat!"
Dongfang Bai was utterly confused. "What?"
"The dozens of newly-recovered Sectors are destined to be lost."
Lei Chenghu explained patiently, not to Dongfang Bai, but to the many elders behind him. "Especially the twenty or so Sectors that have been conquered in the recent three years. They are the thorny, poisonous baits that the Covenant Alliance has tossed out!
"If the Council of Elders cannot send more soldiers to the expedition army, I suggest we abandon the twenty Sectors voluntarily and retreat the army back to the 'Shenying-Guhe' line to both concentrate the troops and reduce the logistical pressure. Perhaps there will still be a chance to resist the Covenant Alliance's last counterattack.
"Of course, even if we choose the relatively conservative strategy and really retreat to the 'Shenying-Guhe' line, the expedition army must not be reduced or disbanded. It must retain its current scale and further concentrate on the chain of command. That is the only way to find an opportunity for a strategic decisive battle with the main force of the Covenant Alliance!"
"It is even less possible!"
Dongfang Bai blurted out, "The enemy has run off after a crushing defeat, and yet you ask our army to back off without fighting and abandon more than twenty worlds voluntarily. That is really—"
"Yes. It's truly impossible. The ravenous nobles have long craned their necks ready to divide the delicious and succulent trophies. Who is willing to give away the fat meat that they have already swallowed?"
Lei Chenghu shook his head and sighed. "Cowardice is not the reason for failure, nor is greediness. But if you are both cowardly and greedy, or if you are greedy when you should be cowardly and cowardly when you should be greedy, there is no way that you can survive!
"This is all that I want to say. Do what you see as fit!"
Lei Chenghu closed his eyes slowly, deep in thought.
"Marquis Liaohai…"
Dongfang Bai was overwhelmed for a moment. After a long daze, he said, "I'm afraid you are exaggerating, aren't you? While alluring the enemy to push forward recklessly has always been a trick in the military, who is ever crazy enough to pay the price of dozens of Sectors to do so?
"We are talking about dozens of habitable planets and hundreds of resource planets. The population, mother lodes, and all kinds of resources are inestimable!
"Such tremendous resources would be absorbed by the Imperium if there is an error in their strategy. By then, the Covenant Alliance will really be doomed for failure!
"Even the craziest gambler would not take such a wild gamble, would they? This is almost a gamble on the fate of the country!
"More than ten years ago, when the Imperium launched the strategic counterattack, the Covenant Alliance was clearly at an advantage. Why would they resort to such an insane gamble?
"Therefore, the base and the Council of Elders have considered if the enemy was alluring us to push forward, but the possibility is little to none!"
"Oh?"
Lei Chenghu opened his eyes abruptly again and said, one word after another, "A gamble on the country's face? Well said!
"It is true that, if the Covenant Alliance is as strong as it appears, and it keeps its advantages over the Imperium, there will be no reason for any gamble.
"But what if the Covenant Alliance is not as strong as it appears?
"What if the enemy is on the verge of collapse after everything has been wasted in the millennium war?
"What if the Covenant Alliance is destined to collapse if they fight the Imperium in the battlefield for decades instead of playing the trick to allure us to push forward?
"In such a case, is it possible that the enemy would wager everything in a wild gamble? Tell me!"
Shocked, Dongfang Bai was rendered speechless.
"Compared to the system of the Imperium, the greatest advantage of the Covenant Alliance's system is that the desires and the free will of the citizens are contained to the largest extent through the genetic brainwashing."
Lei Chenghu said casually, "In such a way, the strength of all the citizens is highly concentrated almost without any internal conflicts. The friction within the society is close to none, unlike the Imperium where internal competitions happen all the time.
"But such an abnormal system also has a natural-born deficiency.
"Without free will, there will be no creativity and innovation. Without feelings and desires, nobody will think to push civilization forward. The whole world is lifeless, and everybody is just a fully-wound machine in their place.
"The only factor that pushes the Covenant Alliance to evolve is the Pangu relics that they have been excavating. They upgrade themselves by the technologies and the magical equipment that their 'god' grants them.
"A thousand years ago, with the advanced technologies from the Pangu relics and the zero-friction social system, the Covenant Alliance took the Imperium unprepared and secured a strategic advantage over the Imperium.
"However, wars are the fastest means of communication between civilizations. After a thousand years of war, the Imperium boasts technologies close to the Covenant Alliance through various channels.
"In the meantime, the fatal weaknesses of the Covenant Alliance, namely the lack of creativity and motivation and the lifelessness, have been more and more exposed.
"Besides, for the past thousand years, the Imperium has been occupying the most prosperous area at the center of the cosmos, with a comprehensive national power higher than the Covenant Alliance's. Despite the brutal failures in the frontline, it can always refill new soldiers and resources incessantly. The Covenant Alliance, on the other hand, cannot afford such a war of attrition.
"The war of the Covenant Alliance against the Imperium is a typical war where a small country fights a big one. It is already a miracle of miracles that they persisted for a thousand years. Now that they are done with their clever tricks, and they know they only have several decades left, is it strange at all that they decide to play an insane gamble?"
Chapter 2202: The Last Decency |
The more Lei Chenghu said, the more absurd Dongfang Bai found it to be. He couldn't help but interrupt him, "Marquis Liaohai, your theory about the gamble of the country's fate is just your speculation, right? Do you have the slightest proof?"
"Not at all."
Lei Chenghu pointed at his head and admitted frankly, "It is just my guess based on my intuitions."
Dongfang Bai was amused. "Your guess? Intuitions?"
"War is an art of speculations. Any commander can be victorious when they have all the information both on their own side and on their enemy's side, but only the most experienced, sensitive, and excellent commander is capable of predicting the enemy's capabilities and strategies when the enemy is in the dark because of the lack of intelligence."
Lei Chenghu said casually, "My intense intuitions are stabbing my brain brutally every second like iron needles, telling me that the main force of the Covenant Alliance is coveting us from the darkness in space. As long as we are sluggish for one moment, they will lunge out and cut our throats.
"It is a sense of danger that cannot be described in any words. Someone who has never fought in a battlefield for real can never understand it."
Dongfang Bai gnashed his teeth again. "You…"
Eyeing Dongfang Bai up and down for a long time, Lei Chenghu suddenly put on a mysterious smile. "However, after observing the stupid look on your face, I'm starting to believe that the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance was not your scheme.
"Then, it is even worse now.
"If it was not certain malicious guys in the Council of Elders who organized the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance, it could only have been done by the Covenant Alliance.
"The spies of the Covenant Alliance have infiltrated the base of the expedition army and the Council of Elders to an unimaginably deep level, considering that they could both plan the assassination of the Blood Oath Alliance and manipulate you like fools."
"W-What?"
Dongfang Bai's face was as pale as a paper. "Are you suggesting that the Covenant Alliance is behind the Blood Oath Alliance?"
"Could it be anybody else?"
Lei Chenghu sighed and said, "In such a critical moment, who will benefit most from the escalation of the conflicts between the frontline and the fear?
"Think about the question clearly. If your greediness blinds your wisdom, and you are truly determined to do things that will hurt your friends and delight your foe, I assure you that the main force of the Covenant Alliance will certainly march to your front in the next second of your celebration!"
"Hehe…"
Dongfang Bai narrowed his eyes, full of suspicion.
"I'm starting to regret that I left the Astounding Thunder Fleet and returned to the capital with you under the illusion that I could convince the Council of Elders."
Looking at the face of the head of the special agents, Lei Chenghu sighed. "I have realized that I made a horrible mistake, one that countless generals in the frontline have made since ancient times. They greatly overestimated the wisdom of the noble lords in the court behind them and underestimated their insatiable ravenousness.
"People can only see the things they want to see and believe the things they want to hear. A lot of people in the Council of Elders hate my guts. They cannot sleep in peace as long as I am alive. I'm afraid that they have been hoping that I can retire or even 'unfortunately perish' for a long time, haven't they?
"For those elders, even if they are faced with a piece of intelligence regarding the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance that is brimming with loopholes, they will simply turn a blind eye to them and believe it unconditionally.
"With everything coming to this point, there is nothing we need to talk about now. I will never make any public statements. I cannot provide any convenience to help you control the Astounding Thunder Fleet either. My future depends on the ruling of the Council of Elders. Unless you are about to drag me out for a secret execution, you don't need to come to waste my time again!"
Indifferently, Lei Chenghu held his arms and made a posture of farewell.
The three investigators looked at each other for a long time, all flinching.
After a long hesitation, Dongfang Bai gnashed his teeth. "Marquis Liaohai, if you insist on not making a public statement, and you are unwilling to persuade the radicals in the Astounding Thunder Fleet to leave the frontline and receive investigations in the rear, it is very possible that certain extremely unpleasant and violent conflicts will burst out. Wouldn't that give an opportunity for the Covenant Alliance, which might cast the Imperium into eternal doom, like you said just now?
"Is that what you want to see? By then, will you be as peaceful as right now?"
Lei Chenghu stared at Dongfang Bai without blinking, the intensity in his eyes growing level by level. Eventually, they were glittering like the light of the double main guns of a super heavy warship immediately before a bombardment.
His voice that was as tough as iron and as indifferent as ice shot out clearly like the bullets of an anti-materiel sniper rifle. "I will do my best to protect my homeland, the Imperium of True Human Beings! Even if all the soldiers of the Imperium have sacrificed and I am the only one left, I will still charge at the enemy's starships without any hesitation!
"However—
"Isn't survival of the fittest the belief of the Immortal Cultivators and the self-explanatory truth of the Imperium of True Human Beings?
"If my warriors and I can't rescue the decayed, corrupted country after doing everything we can, and the army of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant sweeps across the entire sea of stars, it will mean that we chose a wrong path, and that the people and system of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant are more advanced than those of the Imperium. The Covenant Alliance, as well as the Pangu Clan hidden behind the Covenant Alliance, is a superior species that is more excellent than the humans of the Imperium and more entitled to the prosperous resources at the center of the cosmos, with which they will create a new-generation of Pangu Civilization that is more brilliant than the civilization of mankind.
"In that case, I will have nothing to say. What can I do except to admit my failure and pay the greatest homage to my opponent? Bursting into fury like a clown?
"In the infinite universal battlefield that is haunted by eternal wars, admitting failure after losing a gamble is perhaps the last decency of a civilization. Failures are as normal as victories for any general. I am already braced for any outcome."
Faced with the honest eyes of Lei Chenghu, the three investigators were all uneasy.
The filth and insignificance in their hearts seemed to have been illuminated by the brilliance emanated by Lei Chenghu, which was even more dazzling than the star.
Their attitude was entirely different from when they just entered, and they had been truly awed by Lei Chenghu.
"G-Got it."
Dongfang Bai said in a panic, "This meeting is now concluded. We will report everything that Marquis Liaohai said just now to the Council of Elders exactly as it is for discussion. In any case, I absolutely trust Marquis Liaohai's loyalty myself, and I will handle the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance cautiously. Please take a rest here for a couple of days. We will be off for now."
The three investigators bowed at Lei Chenghu deeply again and backed off until they left the clean and quiet prison room.
