that alone was proof enough of your strength; if you did not even know how to command a battle, you had no business sitting in that seat at all.
She, Charlotte, was the Grand Marshal, not a wet nurse who had to bring the milk right to your mouth.
She gave the Owl Dragon officers under her a great deal of room to act; that too was trust enough.
"Understood; no problem," Marshal Pei Shengnan said.
Grand Marshal Charlotte nodded, then added, "First let me make one thing clear. Unless the Devourer Civilization interstellar fleets opposite get reinforcements, we won't send you any more support from here; you'll have to think all of this through yourself."
"Yes."
"Then may your fortunes in war prosper." Grand Marshal Charlotte gave Pei Shengnan a military salute.
Marshal Pei Shengnan returned the salute, and watched the video window go dark just then.
She took a deep breath and glanced at the time.
She asked the deputy captain beside her, "How long until we reach the expected combat position?"
"No more than ten minutes at most," the deputy captain said beside her.
Marshal Pei Shengnan glanced at the time and at the interstellar war holo-table, and said in a low voice, "We must reach our combat position within ten minutes. Notify the Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet as well; tell them our fighting time and plan, and have them be sure to reach their combat position within the time we require."
"Yes," the deputy captain answered.
Marshal Pei Shengnan looked out through the bridge's viewport just then.
Where they were now was in truth very close to the main battlefield; she could see the interstellar warships fighting there very easily.
She could see the Owl Dragon legion fleets fighting hard, cutting down the enemy.
Marshal Pei Shengnan licked her lips and clenched her fists. "This is a battle where our Tenth Legion fleet can make its name as the flagship of the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion Fleet Group. It's not like the battles before, or the interstellar warships we destroyed then. This time what we're to destroy is the Black-God First Legion fleet, the elite legion fleet under the Black-God Sovereign; you could even call it the elite of the elite. If our Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet can annihilate the enemy's Black-God First Legion fleet, it'll be a huge achievement for us!"
That was what Marshal Pei Shengnan was thinking now.
The Owl Dragon Tenth Legion Fleet Group was the newest of all the fleet groups, and the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet the newest of the ten flagship legion fleets, with the least merit to its name.
Marshal Pei Shengnan did not crave glory, but she set great weight on her own Owl Dragon Tenth Legion Fleet Group, and thought of it as her own child.
Whether she herself was promoted or won merit did not matter, but she did not like to see her child buried in obscurity, or become the one everyone overlooked.
So she meant to make the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion the standard-bearer of the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion Fleet Group, its pride, the goal the other legion fleets strove for.
That was her thinking; it had nothing at all to do with winning merit and making a name.
Perhaps it was a kind of feeling that came of being a "mother".
Very soon both the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet and the Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet had reached their combat positions.
And at Marshal Pei Shengnan's demand, they took up a fan-shaped battle formation:
the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet in the middle, and the Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet split in two, on the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet's two wings.
"Report: the enemy legion fleets will reach the battlefield in five minutes," a subordinate reported to Marshal Pei Shengnan.
Pei Shengnan nodded silently, then looked again at the interstellar war holo-table before her.
Where they were now was, strictly speaking, already on the edge of this star system.
And behind them, the Owl Dragon Third Legion Fleet Group led by Medusa was locked in fighting with the enemy's million interstellar warships.
The gap in numbers of interstellar warships between the two sides was no small one, but in the run of the fighting, Medusa's Owl Dragon Third Legion Fleet Group still had the upper hand.
But if the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet and the Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet did not stop them next,
and the enemy's three hundred thousand Devourer Civilization interstellar warships and that Black-God legion fleet behind appeared straight on the battlefield and threw off the fighting of Medusa's Owl Dragon Third Legion Fleet Group,
it would be a grave threat to Marshal Medusa and her Owl Dragon Third Legion Fleet Group,
unless the Owl Dragon Emperor and Grand Marshal Charlotte sent other legion fleets in support.
But even then, the harm would already have been done.
Rather than stop it after the harm was done, better to strangle the problem in its cradle before it ever happened.
That was why their Owl Dragon Tenth Legion and Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion were here:
to head it off before it came!
"Lieutenant General Cao, are you all ready over there?" Marshal Pei Shengnan looked at the woman on the other side of a video window beside her.
This woman was the legion commander of the Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet, Lieutenant General Cao.
Lieutenant General Cao's looks were rather unusual: a woman with something of a man's features, yet she gave the impression of a handsome young man.
Her skin was very fair, and there was something of mixed blood about her.
It was said she came from what had been the Demon Race's territory in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's early days.
She had the features of the Demon Race, yet those of the Human Race and the Angel Race too.
Gene testing found over ten different racial bloodlines in her.
From this one could judge what her background was, and what her parents and forebears had been like.
In the forces of any race at all, purity of blood was highly prized.
Even among the Demon Race, mixed bloods were strongly shunned, treated as mongrels.
Unless you were born with wealth and ability, mixed blood meant that wherever you went you would be shunned, and even if you got a job, others would get more than you for the same time and the same work.
It could be said that for someone like Lieutenant General Cao, life had started on hard mode, long before anyone else's.
But Lieutenant General Cao was the kind who would not accept defeat; she had scrambled through hardship for the first thirty years of her life, and it had forged a tough, unyielding nature in her.
Later, the universe the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire stood in was unified.
Lieutenant General Cao learned of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's terms for recruits: it set no weight on anything outside you, and looked only at your own ability.
At first Lieutenant General Cao had doubted it, for when she joined other powers before, they had all made such promises too, and in the end her mixed blood had never won her equal treatment.
But once she had truly joined the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's legion fleets, she found it really was different here.
Here, no one cared about her blood.
Perhaps some still minded it at heart, but here no one dared show it, for in the Owl Dragon legion fleets such discrimination was expressly forbidden.
People might look down on you for being weak, scorn you for not working hard, curse you for clinging to your life, but they would never look down on you because your body was made differently from someone else's!
Little by little, Lieutenant General Cao began to find her place in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, and began to work like mad.
For she had no gift, and no family to bring her on from birth.
Her starting point was far lower than others'.
But she did not give up; she saw that in the Owl Dragon legion fleets many people's starting points had been low too, and if they could do it, why couldn't she?
And so Lieutenant General Cao, by her efforts, rose at astonishing speed, until at last she became a legion fleet commander and stood on the stage where she was now.
Unlike Marshal Pei Shengnan, Lieutenant General Cao wanted more; she hoped that by winning merit and making her name again and again, she could make more people see her and accept her,
so that she, a mixed blood, could stand higher still.
Perhaps it was the first half of her life that had made her what she was.
"I'll say it once more. In this military operation, my Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet is the main force, and your Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet supports it. It's not that I look down on you. It's mainly that I don't know you or your legion fleet; I can trust your strength and ability, but how we work together may not come out perfect. So this way of working is best. Once our Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet has engaged the enemy, your Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion waits for my order. The task you may have to carry out comes in two cases. In one, the enemy legion fleets attack of their own accord; in that case our Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet will fight and fall back, letting our battle position take a U shape, and once the enemy has fallen fully into our pocket, your Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet draws the pocket shut, and our Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet strikes back while we're at it. When the enemy sees things are wrong, they may break out or fall back. You must make sure the pocket is tied tight; not one enemy interstellar warship is to break out! I've told the Grand Marshal and His Majesty the Emperor that within ten hours we'll eat the enemy's Black-God First Legion fleet and their three hundred thousand interstellar warships!"
When she had heard this, Lieutenant General Cao nodded firmly and promised, "Rest assured, Lord Marshal; I can give you a pledge on my life here. If things go as you plan, our Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet, once it has the pocket tied, will never let a single enemy interstellar warship break out! If even one enemy interstellar warship breaks out, I'll go and ask His Majesty the Emperor and the Grand Marshal to punish me myself!"
Marshal Pei Shengnan did not take this up, but went on, "Now the second case: the enemy doesn't attack directly, but faces us off in a tug-of-war. If so, we'll have to attack first. Then you'll attack along with us from the flanks. At any cost, surround the enemy in the shortest time; I'll also form some interstellar cruisers and interstellar battlecruisers into slicing breakthrough fleets to slice through the enemy's fleets and cut their interstellar warships into several pieces. Then we form several encirclements and destroy them bit by bit."
Lieutenant General Cao nodded; to her, Marshal Pei Shengnan's arrangements had no problems at all.
The second tactical plan was perhaps a little headlong, but given the need for a swift fight here, it was already the best way to fight.
"No problems on my end. My Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion fleet won't have any problems either," Lieutenant General Cao promised solemnly.
"If this operation goes well, I'll buy you a drink afterward, Lieutenant General Cao," Marshal Pei Shengnan said with a smile.
Lieutenant General Cao laughed. "Then I'd better accept than stand on ceremony."
After a short exchange, the battle plan for this operation was more or less settled.
Next came waiting for the enemy to appear.
Much as the Phantom Scouts had reported, five minutes later
the Black-God First Legion fleet and the three hundred thousand interstellar warships of the Devourer Civilization's regular legion fleets arrived on time, and appeared within starship radar range.
The Black-God First Legion fleet · the flagship's bridge
"The enemy was ready for us?" The Black-God First Commander looked at the image data sent back by the interstellar reconnaissance ships ahead and knit his brows somewhat.
The plan had been to come in support and attack in two echelons, a million interstellar warships in the first and three hundred thousand-odd in the second, with the Black-God First Legion fleet he led in person, and catch the enemy off guard.
But he had never thought the enemy would seem to know his plan in advance, and have made its dispositions so early.
That wrecked his original plan entirely.
"My lord, what do we do now? Do we go around them?" a subordinate asked beside him.
"Go around them? Since the enemy has prepared for us here, they won't let us go around; so long as we're here, they'll do everything they can to stop us. So breaking through head-on is the only way we have. But there are only eighty thousand interstellar warships opposite, two Owl Dragon legion fleets. It seems they really do think little of us. True, on the frontal field our fighting power really doesn't match the Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships opposite, but with our Black-God First Legion fleet here, and still they arrange things like this."
The Black-God First Commander gave a cold laugh. "Then let them see that not every legion fleet in the Devourer Civilization is theirs to bully. Our Black-God First Legion fleet is nothing like the ordinary legion fleets! Pass on my order: every part, make ready to attack. Let the regular legion fleets attack in front, and our Black-God First Legion fleet follow behind; once our regular legion fleets have engaged the enemy's interstellar warships, we'll look for a breakthrough point in the enemy fleet's position, and then attack in one stroke!"
"Yes."
Very soon, on the border of this star system, a local war broke out.
"It seems the Black-God First Legion fleet opposite came prepared too. They're using the regular legion fleets in the van as a knocker on the door, to test how strong we are, then find a breakthrough point and attack in one stroke to throw our battle formation into disorder," Marshal Pei Shengnan saw through the Black-God First Commander's plan at a glance.
"Then how should we respond?" the deputy captain asked beside her.
Marshal Pei Shengnan thought a moment, then opened two video windows; on the other side were two corps fleet commanders.
"You two love putting on a show most of all; now's your time to put one on. Remember, make it look real; don't give it away. And the one opposite is the Black-God First Legion fleet; are you sure you can do it?" Marshal Pei Shengnan looked at these two corps fleet commanders.
These two were corps fleet commanders in the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion, the Third Corps Fleet among them.
And in the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet they were the two Marshal Pei Shengnan punished most; they were always getting into trouble,
rather like the mischief-makers in a school class.
But they had their own talents, and now was the time for Marshal Pei Shengnan to make use of them.
"Don't you worry, Marshal; leave this to me."
"Playing the pig to eat the tiger is my favorite thing."
The two corps fleet commanders said, grinning, like a pair of crafty merchants.
Marshal Pei Shengnan looked at the two of them grinning cheekily and rolled her eyes; there was nothing else wrong with these two, except that they did not look a bit like commanders.
"I don't care how you go about it; however you play it, whatever you do, I won't interfere. I only look at results. You should both know very well that this battle matters greatly to our Owl Dragon Tenth Legion, and to the whole course of the battle. If anything goes wrong this time, it won't be me punishing you; it'll be His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor and Grand Marshal Charlotte, and I won't be able to cover for you then," Marshal Pei Shengnan said sternly.
The two corps fleet commanders still wore their smiles; one of them said, "Marshal, don't you worry. We're easygoing as a rule, but on the battlefield, when have the two of us ever shamed you? In our Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet, our two corps fleets may not be the strongest, but we're in the top three at least. This task: you just watch."
The way they talked, one could not tell at all how important this task was.
Marshal Pei Shengnan sighed helplessly and said nothing more.
Then, on the battlefield,
everything seemed to go just as the Black-God First Commander had foreseen: the Devourer Civilization's regular legion fleets met the Owl Dragon Tenth Legion fleet here head-on first.
Gradually a U-shaped field of battle took shape.
Just then the Owl Dragon Seventy-Eighth Legion, which had stayed on the flanks all along, moved too; the legion fleet's two wings began swinging quickly around to encircle.
The Black-God First Commander had in truth long foreseen this move by the Owl Dragon legion fleets opposite; he had no worry about it at all, and made no change to his fighting.
His plan was to seek the attack, and seek his chance in the attack.
And now the Black-God First Commander marked two positions on the interstellar war holo-table; by his observation,
the Owl Dragon legion fleets at these two positions were plainly somewhat weaker in fighting power than the other legion fleets.
They were the best breakthrough points.
And the positions of these two corps fleets happened to be key nodes in the enemy Owl Dragon legion fleets' frontal position; if these two breakthrough points could be opened,
he was sure to cut the line of the Owl Dragon legion fleets' position opposite in half at the waist, and strike the Owl Dragon legion fleets piece by piece!
"Pass on my order: our Black-God First Legion fleet prepares to attack, at these two positions. In the shortest time, tear open these two gaps and throw off the enemy's attack." So the Black-God First Commander ordered.
"Yes."
The Black-God First Legion fleet attacked at once; its interstellar warships maneuvered fast, plunging quickly into the gaps on the frontal field where the regular legion fleets and the Owl Dragon legion fleets were fighting, and joined the fight against the Owl Dragon legion fleets on the frontal field.
And the attack fell exactly on the two "openings" the Black-God First Commander had marked.
And the Owl Dragon corps fleets at these two positions, the moment the Black-God First Legion fleet struck them so suddenly, did indeed look as if they were breaking.
The lines at both positions began to fall into disorder; those Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships fell back bit by bit, looking as if they could not stand up to the enemy's attack and had chosen to fall back.
The Black-God First Legion would naturally not let so good a chance slip; it pressed the pursuit, plainly meaning to punch right through the Owl Dragon legion fleets' line.
And just as these two "arrows" were about to pierce these two lines of the Owl Dragon legion fleets,
suddenly the Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships on these two lines, which had been in some disorder from the rout, changed completely from what they had been.
Small numbers of interstellar warships formed into combat squares one after another, and under these combat squares the Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships showed not the slightest intention of falling back.
And just then the attacking Black-God First Legion fleet found that however much they stepped up their attack, they could make no more headway at these two enemy "openings".
"What's going on? Why has the attack stopped!" Seeing this, the Black-God First Commander demanded, somewhat angrily.
A subordinate answered helplessly, "According to our vanguard fleets' reports, the enemy's interstellar fleets at these two points, apart from looking as if they were collapsing under our attack at first, seemed suddenly to go fully into combat state at some point after that; however our interstellar fleets organize the attack, they can't move forward an inch."
Hearing his subordinate's report,
the Black-God First Commander smelled something wrong; he knit his brows and thought.
Just then, something changed again on the front line.
A subordinate hurried to report: "Report: the enemy's interstellar fleets on the frontal field are counterattacking now! They're coming at our attacking interstellar fleets from both flanks, and look as if they mean to eat our attacking fleets instead."