January 5th.
Chu Changhe launched his fiercest assault yet; on this single day, Chu Changhe's side lost three T4 Boreas, with five more T4 Boreas gravely crippled.
This day, too, saw the largest single-day interstellar-warship loss-figures of the past half-year.
Chu Changhe's fleet-group lost, in a single day, near 5,000 T2-grade and above interstellar warships!
The Royal Interstellar Main-Fleet Group's losses reached a still more staggering 7,000 interstellar warships.
Which was, in the span of one day, the loss of two full-strength interstellar legion-fleets!
Yet the Royal Interstellar Main-Fleet Group's defense-line still held its order, and did not fall into chaos on that account.
That same day, Huang Zhixiong's Azure Interstellar Main-Fleet Group launched its fiercest assault on the North Wind Star Region.
The North Wind Interstellar Fleet-Group resisted stubbornly, but was, in the shape of things, beaten down all the same.
Over the next three days.
The fighting between the Royal Main-Fleet Group and Chu Changhe's main-fleet group stayed just as fierce.
Single-day losses topped 5,000 interstellar warships apiece.
By the time this great decisive battle had come to this point, either side's loss-rate had passed 30%!
It could be called the most gruesome campaign the Starlight Empire had seen in decades.
And a civil war, of all things!
——
January 9th.
Under the Royal Interstellar Main-Fleet Group's bitter fighting, the first relief force at last arrived.
The 60,000 interstellar warships of the North-Expedition First Main-Fleet Group joined the battlefield.
With that, on this great decisive battlefield, the Princes' faction's military strength already ran to near twice Chu Changhe's!
And at the same time Chu Changhe suffered attack on two fronts.
Even while holding off the North-Expedition First Main-Fleet Group, he still had to contend with the Royal Interstellar Main-Fleet Group.
From this day on, one could see that Chu Changhe's strength was plainly growing hard to sustain, and the intensity of his attacks began to fall off sharply.
Though the interstellar warships on the battlefield had grown more numerous, the two sides' losses were, of all things, less than the previous few days'.
This was the situation the Princes' faction was glad to see; they earnestly hoped to drag Chu Changhe down into the quagmire of this great decisive battle — at which point victory would be theirs to command.
January 10th.
On this day, two pieces of good news came at once.
First, on the main battlefield, the Princes' faction's North-Expedition Second Main-Fleet Group and the Princes' faction's Combined Main-Fleet Group arrived at the battlefield one after the other.
They formed, around Chu Changhe's interstellar fleet-group, a four-sided pincer!
At this very moment, Qin Ming felt as though half his backside were already seated upon the Starlight Empire's imperial throne.
Chu Changhe's interstellar fleet-group — mighty though it was, could it truly defy the heavens?
At the same time, word of victory came from the North Wind Star Region too.
Under the Azure Interstellar Main-Fleet Group's assault, Huang Zhixiong on this day at last took the North Wind Star Region's first bridgehead position.
The several star systems with the North-Wolf System at their core.
This had originally been the territory of the Marquis of North-Wolf; for reasons known to all, once Chu Changhe and the Princes' faction fell out openly, it had passed straight into the North Wind Governor's control.
And a defensive depth-position had been swiftly built up there!
Before this, the fierce fighting with the Princes' faction had all along tugged back and forth across this zone.
And now, the bridgehead position the Princes' faction had been unable to take in near half a year was at last seized.
With that, Huang Zhixiong could ride the tide and invade the whole of the North Wind Star Region!
The Princes' faction's prospects were bright indeed.
Over at the Imperial Capital Star, they had even begun preparing the accession ceremony for His Highness Qin Ming.
They'd even edited up in advance the news of the future defeat of Chu Changhe and the recovery of the Chu River and North Wind Star Regions.
Only awaiting the moment the good news arrived, to spread His Highness Qin Ming's mighty name across the whole of the Starlight Empire.
But.
No one had reckoned that, in the span of a few short hours—
—Qin Ming, high up in the clouds, and the Princes' faction at his back, would be kicked straight down.
Plunged into the abyss!
Every last one of their fair illusions torn to shreds.
Galactic Star-Year 3034, January 10th, 23:00.
Owl Dragon System · T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser No.1 · bridge.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, his expression calm.
But one could plainly feel that the whole atmosphere of the bridge was a touch off.
Zhao Chen glanced at the time — an hour still remained until the action.
"Lilith, confirm it once more. Has every side entered the stand-by state?" Zhao Chen looked to Lilith beside him.
Lilith nodded gravely: "Please set your mind at ease, Commander-in-Chief; we've built a unified command system with each of the legion-fleets, and can know their movements at the first moment. At this instant all their interstellar warships have entered the stand-by state, and the moment the hour for action arrives— —the military operation can unfold!"
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied.
"The old Chu gentleman over there can hold his nerve; Governor Zhu, these past few days, has been fretting fit to burst," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
Because the North Wind Star Region had lost the bridgehead position and several star systems, alarm had spread through the whole of the North Wind Star Region.
It had left even the North Wind Governor unable to keep his calm; several times he'd contacted Zhao Chen to confirm whether the plan was going through smoothly.
Only under Zhao Chen's repeated assurances had this old gentleman Zhu set his heart at ease.
Though these past few days he'd likely still slept poorly.
For what Zhao Chen schemed was too vast!
Just what old Zhu knew of it was already enough to leave old Zhu half in disbelief.
And that was with Zhao Chen not having told him the whole of it.
Were old Zhu to know the whole, his heart likely couldn't have borne it.
"After all, these past few days the North Wind Main-Fleet Group's loss-rate has already reached 30%. Though a good many lord-fleets were urgently requisitioned before this, the other side is, worse luck, of Imperial-military-fleet establishment. Even second-line Imperial-military combat power is nothing the lord-fleets can measure up to. And the two sides' warship counts differ by twofold besides. That they've held out to now owes in great part to the fact that, these past few months, the Northern Goose Group ramped up its sales of the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer to the North Wind Star Region," Lilith answered.
"Let those fellows caper a while longer," Zhao Chen said with a cold laugh, gazing at the huge interstellar holo-table before him.
Upon it, six interstellar fleet-groups were clearly marked out.
Royal Interstellar Main-Fleet Group: 30,000 remaining, commanded by Qin Ming and Five-Star Marshal Qin Longcheng.
Azure Interstellar Main-Fleet Group: 55,000 remaining, commanded by Five-Star Marshal Huang Zhixiong.
Princes' faction Combined Main-Fleet Group: 56,000 remaining, commanded by Five-Star Marshal Tang Xiong.
Prince Yan Interstellar Main-Fleet Group: 59,000 remaining, commanded by Prince Yan and Five-Star Marshal Zhong Yan.
North-Expedition First Main-Fleet Group: 53,000 remaining, commanded by Five-Star Marshal Cao Jianye.
North-Expedition Second Main-Fleet Group: 57,000 remaining, commanded by Five-Star Marshal Lei Dachuan.
Of these, the two Five-Star Marshals of the North-Expedition First and Second fleet-groups had in truth only just been appointed by Qin Ming half a year before.
Originally the Starlight Empire had but 13-Star Marshals; with these two added, there were now 10 Imperial Marshals.
A single Starlight Empire civil war had drawn seven Imperial Marshals into it, just like that.
There was no telling how many of those six Imperial general-stars across the way would fall this time.
Zhao Chen let a musing smile surface.