On seeing the Owl Dragon Emperor arrive, these military staff officers at once stood straight and saluted His Majesty.
Zhao Chen nodded slightly and passed through these departments.
He saw some operational plan models, and even an interstellar map of the Devourer Civilization's universe, models of interstellar legion fleets and the like.
It could be seen that the military staff officers here were all puzzling over this opponent, the Devourer Civilization.
As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you'll win every battle!
When he had crossed this space, Zhao Chen stood before the small door of a private room.
Lilith went ahead of Zhao Chen to the door, opened it with her own access, then made way for Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen walked into the room.
This room was much smaller than the space outside,
with only a long, curved table.
And at that moment most of the places at the long table were filled.
The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's marshals were nearly all here; only a few commanders carrying out operational tasks abroad were absent,
Marshal Leona, for instance, commander of the Owl Dragon Fifth Legion Fleet Group, in charge in the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe.
To have over ninety-nine percent of the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe's territory under the control of the few interstellar powers they backed within this year,
Marshal Leona could not get away at all; even for this New Year ceremony, she had only sent back one of her fleet group's deputy commanders.
She was the only Imperial Marshal not present.
Zhao Chen understood this, and had even had someone carry his greetings to her.
Zhao Chen looked at those present this time:
Charlotte, Shen Bing, Chu Xuan, Medusa, Chitong, Su Lan, Zhao Waner, the wolf-girl Baixue, Zhao Ruyue, Wei Shishi, Qingman, Midai, Pei Shengnan……
The lowest in rank were the newly promoted marshals.
"Your Majesty." Seeing Zhao Chen arrive, those in the room rose one after another and saluted.
Zhao Chen walked to the place beside Charlotte, signaled everyone to sit, and sat down himself without ceremony.
He looked at Charlotte beside him and said in a low voice with a faint smile, "I hear you've got a big present ready for me today."
"I only hope Your Majesty won't blame me for overstepping my authority." Charlotte winked at Zhao Chen playfully.
Then Zhao Chen sat up straight and proper. "If everyone's here, let's begin. And let's not waste time on idle talk; just tell me about your plan."
Since the Owl Dragon Emperor said so,
Charlotte, who was in charge here, naturally came straight to the point too.
She stood up, looked all around her, and said, "Then let's begin this military conference. This military conference is to settle the operational plan we've discussed many times before. It's also the first time this matter is raised before His Majesty. If His Majesty settles it, what follows is the real carrying-out. Before we carry it out, we must remove every unstable factor!"
Charlotte opened an interstellar holo-table before Zhao Chen.
It was a fairly unfamiliar interstellar holo-table.
But it was not that Zhao Chen had never seen it at all; once he had picked out a few places, the material connected with them came to Zhao Chen's mind:
the map of the Devourer Civilization's interstellar universe!
"This is the most detailed interstellar war holo-table map of the Devourer Civilization's universe we can get at present. On one hand, it's the intelligence reported back by the interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships we've placed in the Devourer Civilization's universe, still lying hidden. On the other, it's material provided by the Holy Elf Empire, and material gathered from other quarters. Together they make up this interstellar holo-table map of the Devourer Civilization's universe. Besides the most basic star-chart coordinates and the like, on it we've also marked every important place known. The star systems where each of the Devourer Civilization's three Sovereigns has its stronghold, for instance."
At this, Charlotte marked three places on the interstellar war holo-table; the three places formed just the shape of a triangle,
lying in three areas of the Devourer Civilization's universe territory.
Besides that, important high-value strategic places appeared on the interstellar war holo-table: star ports, interstellar fortresses, military factories, resource sites and the like.
And there was other important intelligence besides, such as where each of the Devourer Civilization's main fleets was stationed.
"By the latest word we have: over the past half year, the Devourer Civilization's three Sovereigns have been hurrying to expand their forces all along. On the strength of their mighty military industry, in a short half year, they've turned out thirty million interstellar warships outright, which counts as making good most of the interstellar warships they lost in the fighting with us before."
Thirty million interstellar warships produced in half a year.
Military-industrial power this terrifying only an interstellar civilization built for war could have.
"But as for when the three Sovereigns will launch their plan of military reprisal against our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe, there's still no concrete word up to now. By word sent back from our intelligence people, they seem to be waiting for some moment. And that time is probably still within this year. We considered it before: rather than keep waiting for the enemy's attack, thinking how to defend against it, better that we attack first, and use the elite character of our Owl Dragon legion fleets to make a lightning strike on the enemy's universe territory. In a short time, destroy the enemy's main fleets, main military factories and industries, so as to wreck the enemy's military-industrial chain and so delay the enemy's plan to make war on us." Marshal Charlotte set out her original idea.
Attack as defense.
Zhao Chen and Lilith could in fact both understand that.
For in military matters there had always been this view:
that the best defense is really attack.
"Put the war in the enemy's universe; that way we can make sure our home universe is spared the flames of war, and make sure our production and industry aren't affected. That's the benefit we can get."
At this point Marshal Charlotte paused, then went on, "And it isn't without its harm. The harm is plain: we'd need to fight across universes. In the first stage of the war before, we did carry out a reprisal counterattack plan against the Devourer Civilization's invasion fleets, strike back at the Devourer Civilization's home universe and destroy seven star systems. But that was only a short operational plan after all, and doesn't really count as fighting across universes. And this time, though it's a lightning war, the war will last at least within a month. And what we attack won't be only one point. So this cross-universe lightning war will test us enormously. It's not only our first time fighting across universes, but a very hard one at that."
Marshal Charlotte's explanation made very good sense.
Their first cross-universe war, and against something as mighty as the Devourer Civilization,
and fighting on many fronts at that.
After all, the aim of the operation was to wreck the enemy's military-industrial chain in a short time; they surely could not attack one place only.
They had to attack many places at once, and achieve their aim in a short time.
A strange universe, a mighty enemy, an unfamiliar operational plan:
for the Owl Dragon legion fleet groups, it was beyond doubt an enormous test.
"Before this conference, we'd already discussed this direction of planning many times, and had a great many detailed operational plans. After weighing them again and again, what's finally set before us, and before His Majesty's eyes, is this operational plan here," Charlotte said as she spoke.
There were some changes in the projection of the interstellar war holo-table before them.
First, rings of light appeared, more than thirty of them.
Zhao Chen counted them; to be exact, there were thirty-six.
Then Zhao Chen saw holographic models of interstellar fleets appear at the places of these thirty-six rings.
Those rings of light must stand for the cross-universe travel equipment used to deliver the interstellar fleets.
And these thirty-six places were the targets of attack.
Zhao Chen swept his eyes over them.
He found to his surprise that among these thirty-six targets were the three Sovereigns' strongholds, the ten largest star ports, the ten largest military factories, the ten largest resource sites,
and important interstellar bases, interstellar fortresses and other places:
all of them the Devourer Civilization's most important strategic points.
To attack so many places at once: neither Zhao Chen nor Lilith had expected it.
Mind you, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's main interstellar warships only just passed five million now.
To attack thirty-six target sites was quite a hard task.
After all, that was the Devourer Civilization's home universe, and the interstellar warships in the Devourer Civilization's hands had now recovered to seventy or eighty million.
With the enemy holding an absolute advantage in numbers of interstellar warships, defending against this kind of lightning war, and a scattered attack at that, would work quite well.
Just then Charlotte went on, "Your Majesty, on seeing this map of attack, you must be puzzled. We have only ten regular legion fleet groups and five ace legion fleet groups in hand. All told, under six million interstellar warships, to attack thirty-six strategic targets under an interstellar civilization with over seventy million interstellar warships. Isn't that rather too big an appetite? In fact, this whole set of targets is a feint!"
All of them a feint?
Lilith was greatly surprised, and could not help asking, "Then where is the real target of attack?"
Charlotte shook her head and said, "I don't know."
She did not know?
The answer was wholly beyond anything Zhao Chen and Lilith had expected.
Charlotte explained further, "I'm not joking; right now I truly don't know where the real target of attack is. In several of the earlier operational plans, we did draw up real targets of attack."