In the fighting that followed, the North-Expedition First Main-Fleet Group and the North-Expedition Second Main-Fleet Group did, at the very start, live up to that "fight to the death" demand.
Under their two newly minted marshals' direction, they kept up their assault on the Owl Dragon Legion's positions.
Which drew them step by step into the Imperial Princess Fleet-Group's ring of encirclement.
And in that first hour, the Owl Dragon Legion displayed its astonishing power of annihilation.
Its single-hour kill-figure alone surpassed the sum of the Princes' faction's and Chu Changhe's single-day losses from before.
One hour of clashing.
The Owl Dragon Legion loosed two rounds of carpet-style interstellar-missile firepower bombardment outright.
These two rounds alone annihilated 30,000 interstellar warships.
Add to that the head-on hard duel on the frontal battlefield — 10,000 interstellar warships killed!
With that, the Owl Dragon Legion had wrought a terrifying result of 40,000 interstellar warships annihilated in a single hour!
Within the ever-shrinking ring of the Imperial Princess Fleet-Group, the debris of interstellar warships blasted to pieces could be seen everywhere.
One hour — a loss-rate of 30%!
What a terrifying power of annihilation.
Ask, then — how did the Owl Dragon Legion manage it?
The one answer the Owl Dragon Legion's Commander-in-Chief could likely give was this.
Money!
For in this one hour, the Owl Dragon Legion's combat consumption reached 30 billion star coins!
And what sort of a notion was 30 billion star coins?
Before this, the monthly battlefield consumption Chu Changhe had fixed for his own legion-fleets came to a mere 30 billion-odd star coins.
In the span of a single hour, Zhao Chen had burned through the ordnance-value of a whole month's campaign for Chu Changhe!
"Commander-in-Chief, the interstellar missiles we carry can still deliver eight rounds of saturation firepower strikes!" Lilith reminded Zhao Chen from beside him.
Zhao Chen nodded, and commanded: "In the shortest time possible, annihilate these two fleet-groups whatever the cost."
"Yes." Lilith relayed the command.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, watching this "resplendent" interstellar campaign before him — every minute of it burning his treasury.
Before Chu Changhe's "January Offensive," Zhao Chen had begun readying combat resources.
And as of now, the combat resources Zhao Chen could mobilize came to 200 billion star coins — this being, without touching the production tasks, the whole of Zhao Chen's stores.
To put it another way: the moment his steel torrent burned through these 200 billion star coins, it would grind to a halt.
And of these 200 billion star coins, Zhao Chen had used a full half to produce interstellar missiles.
On those interstellar supply ships and interstellar transports, near 70% of the space was given over to carrying interstellar missiles.
As that nightmarish first hour passed, and the firelight of the Owl Dragon Legion's third round of interstellar-missile bombardment appeared across the way—
—Marshals Cao Jianye and Lei Dachuan felt they were on the verge of breaking.
Still more!
Still more!
Just how many interstellar missiles did the Owl Dragon Legion across the way even have!
Were they truly flinging interstellar missiles about as if they were stones.
And at this moment the two North-Expedition fleet-groups had made no headway whatever on the frontal battlefield either.
The Owl Dragon Legion had brought out a tactic worthy of a scoundrel.
The zone the interstellar missiles aimed for was not the very foremost zone of the two fleet-groups, but a zone slightly to the rear.
A bombardment of this sort would leave a hollow belt between the two North-Expedition fleet-groups and their forward fleets.
And at that moment, the Owl Dragon Legion's interstellar warships would take the offensive of their own accord, waging a war of annihilation on the "protruding" forward fleets.
And because that vacuum belt had formed, the main-force fleets behind could not reach them in support in the short term.
By the time they did arrive in support, the forward fleets had already been wiped out to the last.
And the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets would then pull back, resuming a defensive posture.
Waiting until after the next round of interstellar-missile bombardment, then coming up to fight another!
Under so scoundrelly a tactic, the two North-Expedition fleet-groups were for all the world like two naked men pinned fast to a beach, suffering, wave upon wave, the humiliation of the surf.
Yet with no recourse whatever.
And the intervals of the follow-on interstellar-missile attacks gradually stretched longer, rather than a bombardment every half-hour.
Though Zhao Chen didn't mind flinging money about, one still shouldn't waste it, no?
This campaign went on right to the fifth hour.
At last, the two fleet-groups' command systems wholly collapsed, and could no longer keep any order in the fighting.
For by the time the fighting reached this point, the two fleet-groups' original 120,000 interstellar warships had only under 30,000 left.
And of these 30,000, half the hulls were in very poor condition besides.
Look, by contrast, at the count of enemy ships they'd destroyed — a mere 3,000-odd!
And near 3,000 of those were, moreover, Imperial Princess Fleet-Group interstellar warships; the Owl Dragon Legion's warships numbered but a trifling hundred-odd!
An unbelievable loss-ratio.
It left the two fleet-groups' newly minted marshals on the very verge of breaking.
"Can't fight it! Can't fight it! This battle simply can't be fought. That Owl Dragon Legion across the way… that… that's a monster! Not only fitted out with T3 interstellar warships across the board — every single one… every single one… is this strong besides. Their interstellar battleships can one-shot our same-grade interstellar battleships. Their interstellar escort-ships can chase our interstellar destroyers on the run. Their interstellar destroyers dare take our interstellar battlecruisers head-on! And besides… besides that, over 50 T4 interstellar warships! 50! Our two fleet-groups' T4-grade interstellar warships put together don't even come to 20! Tell me… Cao Jianye… you tell me! How is this battle to be fought!" Lei Dachuan bellowed in hysterics, his face contorted, both hands clutching at his hair — and he actually tore off two fistfuls of bloody hair outright.
Cao Jianye opened his mouth, meaning to say something.
But he found that at this moment he too had no idea what to say — for… he too felt a deep and sinking helplessness.
Cao Jianye slumped down into the captain's chair, and gazed, soul all but fled, at the interstellar holo-table before him.
They, who'd once held the advantage in numbers, were now ringed by an Imperial Princess Fleet-Group several times their number, penned into a cramped little pocket of encirclement.
"Relay my… command. Abandon the assault… find a way to break out." Cao Jianye handed down the command, heart gone to ash.
But now — could they truly break out?
The answer Cao Jianye dared not speak aloud in his heart, for he knew well how real and how cruel that answer was.
The Owl Dragon Legion…
Murmuring this name within, Cao Jianye shut his eyes, feeling the tremors his flagship took as the interstellar missiles struck.
……
"Report — the two enemy fleet-groups have over 20,000 interstellar warships surviving! Expected to be wholly annihilated within an hour at most. The Imperial Princess Fleet-Group has lost over 3,000 interstellar warships in this span. We've had 109 interstellar warships destroyed, chiefly T3 Triceratops and T3 Wolverine. Another 36 are gravely damaged, and have taken the abandon-ship option on command. And another 267 interstellar warships have their star-shields spent and their hulls at over 30% combined damage, and have been arranged to withdraw to the second-line battlefield." Lilith reported it all, one item at a time.
Zhao Chen was well satisfied — this was the Owl Dragon Legion he'd forged at such pains!
This was the terrifying combat power of a force fitted out with T3-grade interstellar warships across the board.
Behind it, though, was Zhao Chen's terrifying financial might too.
As of now, four rounds of interstellar-missile bombardment, plus the regular combat consumption, had already reached 60 billion star coins!
At this coin-burning pace, Zhao Chen would grant himself second place, and none would dare claim first.