"Third grade · the Owl Dragon Empire's Household Legion fleets. These will be made up of certain second-line Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships, such as the T3-grade warships lately withdrawn from service. They are charged chiefly with keeping order and patrolling within the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's borders. They may be reckoned the police of the Owl Dragon Empire. As to numbers… that is not settled for the present, for our own interstellar warships are in short supply. In short, warships withdrawn from service hereafter may be assigned first of all to the Household Legion fleets."
Hearing this far, Zhao Chen saw that these three grades.
Had already formed the system of military governance within the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, and that all of them were for checks and balances within.
If he guessed rightly, the last two grades would be for what lay without.
"Second grade · the Owl Dragon Legion fleets. Which is to say the system our Owl Dragon Legion holds at present; these may be looked upon hereafter as our Owl Dragon Empire's regular fighting fleets. Their numbers must be raised further; at present they do not reach a million hulls. Which barely meets the establishment of the twenty Owl Dragon legions. And that is far from enough."
Zhao Chen nodded. One important plan for the new year was a fresh enlargement of the Owl Dragon Legion, and a reform of the army.
The occasion served for it well.
"First grade · the ace legions within the Owl Dragon Legion. These too may be looked upon as our regular fighting fleets, but set against the other Owl Dragon legions they will be stronger. The warships they hold may not be the most in number, but they will certainly be the strongest among the Owl Dragon-line warships we now have! All along, our Owl Dragon Legion has taken the road of the small and the fine. Though our warships were not many, yet by the establishment of elite legion fleets we have always held the advantage upon the field. But now is not as it was; we cannot build our military system upon the small-and-fine road alone. We must work both ways at once. The second grade before it takes account of a fleet's scale and number. This first grade carries on the strategy of the small and the fine. And so we have both directions. And upon the field, in facing an enemy, we may answer him with more room to move!" So Charlotte set out this five-grade military system.
Zhao Chen nodded in satisfaction.
To his present view there was nothing amiss in it.
"Are there not further particulars within it?" Zhao Chen asked.
Charlotte nodded, and pointed with emphasis at the first grade and the second: "Upon these two grades. We have thoughts of our own. First, as you have raised before. The establishment system of our Owl Dragon Legion is to be altered once again."
At the mention of it, the several veteran legion marshals behind her shrugged helplessly.
The Owl Dragon Legion's alterations in this line came very fast indeed.
Broadly, once a year.
And every time under sheer necessity.
For without alteration it would not suit an Owl Dragon Legion growing so fast.
"First, we shall carry through a great enlargement. We shall establish a new grade above the Owl Dragon legions. The Owl Dragon legion fleet group: each such group holds ten Owl Dragon legion fleets under it, and each Owl Dragon legion fleet fifty thousand interstellar warships. Which is to say that one Owl Dragon legion fleet group holds five hundred thousand interstellar warships."
This was the notion Zhao Chen had put to Charlotte before.
Since what the Owl Dragon must face hereafter would be great campaigns, a military system of large establishment under unified command was wanted.
Otherwise, as things were before, five hundred thousand warships might need near twenty Owl Dragon legions, in the charge of twenty different Owl Dragon legion commanders.
Even with the Dragon Emperor to direct them, the efficiency of it would suffer not a little.
Whereas with a larger system of command, they might be commanded more swiftly and to better effect.
"And upon the first grade. We purpose at present to build several ace legion fleets. An ace legion fleet has no hard rule for the number of its warships; each may arrange it according to its own need. Our present purpose in building them is this. One ace legion fleet of the frontal-assault kind, under my own command, to seek out chances upon the frontal field and find a breach for the Owl Dragon fleet groups. If in a campaign the whole Owl Dragon is a long spear, then the ace legion fleet in my charge is that spear's head. The second ace fleet will be in Commander Su Lan's charge, and built about a carrier system of war. The third ace fleet will be in Commander Chitong's charge, made up of interstellar cruisers and interstellar battlecruisers. Its chief aims are to pierce through the enemy, to pursue, to support the field, and the like. The fourth ace fleet will be in Commander Baixue's charge, made up of interstellar missile ships and interstellar heavy-artillery ships, forming a system of fire support. The fifth ace fleet will be in Commander Zhao Waner's charge, made up of interstellar stealth bombers; its chief tasks are assassination, ambush, interception, raiding and the like. For the present these five ace fleets are what is planned; if there be other needs hereafter, more may be built besides." Charlotte looked toward Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen was well satisfied with these arrangements; there was truly no need for him to trouble himself at all.
Charlotte had set every military affair in order for him.
And her thoughts upon the ace fleets fell in wholly with Zhao Chen's own.
Indeed, those flagship-model T6 interstellar warships to be produced hereafter would serve very well as the flagships of these ace fleets.
"Then we must lose no time in carrying the reform through. The two hive-race nests are there still; though they have made no move as yet. We cannot be careless. One month. Can this fleet reform of ours be finished in it?" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte in earnest.
Charlotte nodded gravely: "Your Majesty may set his mind at rest. Before the middle of February we shall finish the reform of the first- and second-grade military units! Only that this process will need Your Majesty's cooperation. For with the change of offices, commanders must still be appointed to the several posts. And all this requires your own order."
"I understand."
Zhao Chen knew too that, being now the Emperor of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, much must be put upon a regular footing.
Many rules must be set up anew.
As, for one thing of great importance,
the system of military rank.
Before this, the Owl Dragon Legion's system of rank had been somewhat simple.
Commander, legion commander, fleet commander…
And because the Owl Dragon Legion had in name still belonged to the Starlight Empire, the general officers' titles then in use were certain of the Starlight Empire's.
When the Starlight Empire's civil war ended, Queen Qin Xiaolei had conferred rank upon Charlotte and the others.
If he remembered rightly, Zhao Chen had even held the title of prince regent at that time.
Today is not as yesterday, and much must be changed.
Within the captain's quarters.
Zhao Chen brought out a blue tube.
A very familiar thing.
The super-soldier serum.
This was one of the three T6 exchange options of the year's first quarter.
By reason of what it was, Zhao Chen naturally could not bring it out before others.
Only now had he found the time.
Recalling the scene when he took the T5 super-soldier serum, Zhao Chen swallowed.
But remembering what he now was, Zhao Chen drove it into his own chest without wavering, and the blue liquid within the tube passed into his body.
Zhao Chen drew a sharp breath.
The next second, he fell back upon the bed.
There was no pain, and no sensation whatever.
Zhao Chen felt he had never slept so comfortable a sleep; and when he opened his eyes, his head was light past all measure.
He sat up and looked about him.
The bed in the captain's quarters.
Had he not been certain that he had taken the T6 super-soldier serum, Zhao Chen would truly have thought he had merely slept.
Zhao Chen threw a punch at the empty air.
Unlike before, this time Zhao Chen felt no plain increase of strength.
It was as though… nothing at all had changed.
"Can it be that the T6 super-soldier serum I injected this time was a counterfeit?" Zhao Chen muttered in his astonishment.
He called up the medical robot within the room and examined his body with the greatest care.
And made certain that his body was exactly as it had been.
"What in the world is this about?" Zhao Chen could make nothing of it.
He could not understand at all what this super-soldier serum had done.
There being no answer, Zhao Chen naturally could not work it out.
He could only set it aside for the time.
He tapped open the System interface.
A new year.
Looking at the empty mission column,
Zhao Chen knit his brows again.
Up to now, this year's annual mission and quarterly mission had both failed to refresh.
A quarterly mission delayed Zhao Chen had met with before.
But an annual mission delayed as well, that was the first time.
Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes and looked through every interface of the System, seeking the reason for these oddities.
But without result.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knocking came at the door.
"Come," said Zhao Chen.
"Your Majesty, the several generals have arrived. Your work today is to discuss and settle certain matters of the army together with them." Lilith pushed the door open and spoke.
"Very well, I shall come at once." There was much to do now.
Zhao Chen could only set these doubts aside for the time.
Having changed his clothes, Zhao Chen took up his work again.
Within the conference room, the several legion commanders had already arrived.
What followed was the part of discussing and determining.
And very soon, under the discussion of them all,
a new Owl Dragon system of military rank was determined.
From the lowest to the highest, it divided into five classes and twenty-one grades.
The soldier class, the petty-officer class, the junior-officer class, the field-officer class and the general-officer class, five classes in all.
The soldier class, from lowest to highest: private third class, private second class, private first class, senior private.
The petty-officer class: corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant, sergeant major.
The junior-officer class: warrant officer, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain.
The field-officer class: major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, senior colonel.
The general-officer class: brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general, marshal.
"Soldiers and petty officers are chiefly the middle and lower ranks of a department aboard a starship. Junior officers are the heads of departments, or hold important posts upon the bridge. A starship's captain is at the least of the field-officer class, and may also serve as fleet leader over three hundred starships. Senior field officers and junior general officers may serve as corps leaders over three thousand starships. One charged with a legion of fifty thousand starships must be of the general-officer class. One charged with an Owl Dragon legion fleet group, or with an ace legion, must hold the rank of marshal or general. Besides which, these ranks may be conferred upon the great and lesser lords of the several regions, but the word honorary must be set before the title; and though it is a rank of the Owl Dragon system, it carries no right to command Owl Dragon fleets of the direct line."
Zhao Chen recited over the plan of rank as it had been determined.
All were agreed upon it.
And the task that followed fell to Zhao Chen himself.
That was the appointment and the conferring of rank upon officers of every grade within the reformed Owl Dragon Empire fleets.
Very soon this too was settled.
Zhao Chen charged his secretary-officer Lilith to lose no time in holding the first Owl Dragon Empire ceremony of rank.
Three days later.
This sudden Owl Dragon Empire ceremony of rank drew the attention of not a few.
For this ceremony had summoned besides the great and lesser lords lately enfeoffed in every region.
Upon the day of the conferring,
the place chosen was a banquet hall within the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship, and a full several thousand were gathered there.
"I declare that the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's ceremony of rank is about to begin. Those whose names are read out, come up upon the platform. His Majesty the Emperor will confer your rank upon you." So the secretary-officer Lilith declared before a device shaped like a small bird, and her voice carried through the whole hall.
Thereafter the curtain rose.
Zhao Chen appeared before them all in magnificent and solemn dress.
In an instant every soul present rose to their feet, and saluted the Emperor as one.
"Long live the Emperor!"
Zhao Chen's face did not change; he only stood there.
Lilith, for her part, began to read out the list of those to be ranked.
Only a very few officers would have their rank conferred by the Emperor himself; the rest were left to others.
"Commander of the Owl Dragon Empire First Legion Fleet Group, Shen Bing: conferred the rank of marshal."
Though Shen Bing had long known of this arrangement, within herself she was greatly moved.
She walked slowly up onto the platform, stood before Zhao Chen, and made her salute.
A lady of ceremonies had come up early, bearing a fine wooden case.
Zhao Chen took a marshal's insignia from the case and fastened it upon her.
"Long live the Emperor." Shen Bing straightened her body again, and cried it aloud.
Then, under the gaze of all below, she walked down from the platform.
To those outside, this arrangement was most unexpected.
For by common reasoning the commander of the Owl Dragon Empire First Legion Fleet Group should have been Charlotte, who had always been the first hand in the army at Zhao Chen's side.
"Commander of the Owl Dragon Empire Second Legion Fleet Group, Chu Xuan: conferred the rank of marshal."
At this, the people of the Chu house who had been invited were greatly astonished.
Not a few envious looks fell upon Marshal Chu Changhe.
"My congratulations, Marshal Chu."
"Congratulations! Congratulations! Now your Chu house has two marshals in one family indeed."
"I hear that one such legion fleet group of the Owl Dragon Empire holds five hundred thousand interstellar warships at full establishment. Your granddaughter now commands five hundred thousand of the Owl Dragon's warships!"
Marshal Chu Changhe too was glad for his granddaughter from the bottom of his heart.
Watching his granddaughter have fastened upon her, by that lad Zhao Chen, the insignia that betokened a marshal