"But when we ran the simulated battles, one problem came up every time: the vast numbers of interstellar warships in the enemy's hands give them a great many chances to respond. And once we settle on a real target of attack, if the enemy then gives that real target the greatest support, our attack is bound to be stopped. So we decided that in the first round of attack, every target would be a feint!"
"You mean to cast a brick to draw out jade? After the first round of feints, use the enemy's legion fleet movements to set the second round, after the battlefield pause? And settle the real targets for the second round?" Zhao Chen guessed Charlotte's thinking.
Charlotte nodded, then shook her head and said, "Your Majesty has guessed half of it. We do use the first round of feints to work out the enemy's next steps. But our second round isn't the real attack either. In the second round we'll pause and adjust some targets, but like the first, it's still a feint!"
"Then the real target is in the third round?" Lilith asked beside them, puzzled.
Charlotte shook her head again.
"Then just how many rounds of feints are there?" Lilith was baffled.
Charlotte answered, "I don't actually know yet how many rounds of feints there will be. Because the whole point of this operational plan is really to adapt as things change. Apart from the operations up to the first stage of feints, which are settled, how many rounds of feints follow and where the real target lies are all uncertain; we have to wait until the time actually comes, and then settle the real target of attack!"
Zhao Chen's brow cleared; he understood Charlotte's meaning and thinking completely now.
"Isn't this very risky? When the time comes, it will test our battlefield command, our battlefield deployment and control, and our ability to find out about the enemy to the utmost. If any one link in these goes wrong, it could cause enormous trouble," Zhao Chen said.
Charlotte nodded. "We've taken all of that into account. But this truly is the operational plan best suited to us right now. It's also the one that, after many discussions among our military leadership, has won the agreement of most. Battlefield command: there's no use saying more about that now; it depends on our own ability when the time comes, but I'm confident of it, and we have your Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship besides. Battlefield deployment and control: this tests the fighting ability and adaptability on the battlefield of every legion fleet under our Owl Dragon legion fleet groups, even every corps fleet; whether every order is obeyed at once. On this, I have great confidence in the officers and soldiers of our Owl Dragon legion fleet groups, high and low. I believe in our fighting quality and fighting ability. There will never be any problem on this score!"
"In truth, the most important thing of all in this is our ability to find out about the enemy. The enemy's legion fleet movements are vital to how we adjust our operational plan afterward. Whether information on the enemy's movements can be sent back accurately and quickly, at once, decides whether this operational plan succeeds or not. On this I have a proposal. It needs Your Majesty's consent." Charlotte looked at Zhao Chen.
"Go on."
"It concerns battlefield intelligence, and the movement of interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships. Up to now they've always been divided among the legion fleet groups, each legion fleet group arranging its own in wartime, with the intelligence gathered reported up level by level, finally reaching me, or your Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship, where the staff gather it and sort out the intelligence of value. There's nothing wrong with that way, in fact. But it can no longer meet our needs as we are now. Because with each doing its own job, it looks very orderly, but it can keep efficiency from reaching its peak. Managing these interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships as one, on the other hand, gives their worth a chance to show far better on the battlefield."
Charlotte looked at Zhao Chen and said straight out, "I propose setting up a special ace fleet group made up entirely of interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships, charged solely with gathering intelligence on the battlefield. They'd be a pair of eyes hidden in the dark, seeing the enemy's every move for us, so that we can hunt down every prey precisely in the dark."
An ace fleet group solely for gathering battlefield intelligence.
Mind you, before this,
such a formation had never existed in the Owl Dragon legion fleets' system.
"Since you already have the idea, tell me your detailed arrangements for this ace fleet group," Zhao Chen asked with interest.
Charlotte at once brought up a document: "At present, every corps-level fleet has thirty interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships. So a legion fleet group has over five thousand interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships. First, the existing interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships won't change whom they belong to; their posts stay with their own legion fleets. But supreme command of them will belong to this special ace fleet group. And of the interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships this ace fleet group holds, apart from some that go on following these interstellar legion fleet groups as before, the rest will be formed into interstellar stealth reconnaissance corps fleets! As the name says, solely for reconnaissance: going into a battlefield area ahead of time to scout the enemy's intelligence, or locking onto a target ahead of time and tracking and scouting it. I looked into it: the interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships of every type we now have come to a hundred thousand in all."
Had Charlotte not said so, Zhao Chen himself would never have thought their Owl Dragon legion fleets had so many interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships.
But come to think of it, with six million interstellar warships, a hundred thousand interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships was quite normal, wasn't it?
"These hundred thousand interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships are made up mainly of three grades: T6, T5 and T4. The most advanced, the T6 Silent Ghost-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ship, has thirty in service now. The T5 Phantasm-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship, a thousand. The T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship, a hundred thousand. First, the interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships going with each legion fleet are all of T5 and below, because of what their operational tasks need. Having T6-grade interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships go with them would really be rather a waste. So of the hundred thousand interstellar warships, sixty thousand are fleet-attached interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships; they go with each legion fleet group and take orders from two commands. The intelligence they gather is to be reported to their commanders in the legion fleet, and by default to this ace fleet group as well. And the remaining forty thousand interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships make up the core of this ace fleet group. These forty thousand interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships will form corps fleets, a hundred thirty-odd corps fleets in all. These hundred thirty corps fleets can also be split into branches, each in charge of reconnaissance on its own battlefield. The specific arrangements will still be up to this ace fleet group's commander; she'll build a battlefield intelligence system. And this ace fleet group will answer directly to the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship, becoming the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship's eyes and ears on the battlefield, so as to command the battle of the whole campaign better."[1]
Hearing Charlotte's case, Zhao Chen agreed with it heartily.
The battles before had all been in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe, on Zhao Chen's own ground, where a great deal of intelligence was easy to gather.
But considering that what lay ahead was very likely to be fighting across universes, in strange universes, strange star regions, against strange enemy fleets,
intelligence would be vital.
Zhao Chen understood very well the principle of knowing yourself and your enemy to win every battle.
That was also why placing interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships in every legion fleet had become the custom before.
Zhao Chen nodded. "This idea of yours is very good; I can agree to it. But the commander of such a special ace legion fleet group is very important. Not only her ability in intelligence and reconnaissance; she must also be steady enough, and loyal."
Zhao Chen leaned hard on the word "loyal."
This was a link that held the battlefield intelligence, as good as a vital point of the Owl Dragon legion fleets, so it had to be given to someone trusted enough.
"I've already thought of someone. So long as you agree, she can take up the post at any time, form this ace fleet group, and finish building its framework in a short time, so this ace fleet group can play its part on the battlefield," Charlotte said.
"Who? Let's hear it," Zhao Chen asked curiously.
"The present deputy commander of the Owl Dragon Fourth Legion Fleet Group, General Zhong Xiaoxia." Charlotte spoke the name without hesitation.
Xue Xiaoxiao, commander of the Owl Dragon Fourth Legion Fleet Group, who had been listening all along beside them, made a long face and muttered, "Oh, that's just lovely; now you're poaching from my house. Sister Xiaoxia is very capable; at my side she helps me handle a great many things. Sigh……"
Reluctant as she was at heart, Xue Xiaoxiao only grumbled a little.
If Sister Xiaoxia truly could serve as commander of this newly founded ace fleet group, she would naturally be very glad to see her comrade have the chance to go one step further.
Zhong Xiaoxia?
The record of this general came to Zhao Chen's mind; he had not met her often, but she was, after all, of the rank of a legion fleet group's deputy commander,
a figure of weight in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's forces.
And this woman had in fact followed Zhao Chen a long time, one of the old guard,
and Zhao Chen's fellow alumna besides.
She came of a fallen noble family, the youngest daughter of the house; only with the private savings her mother had put by had she been sent to study at the North Star Starship Military Academy.