Within the starship canteen
Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte, whose appetite had plainly fallen by half.
"Your appetite isn't good today? How is it you've ordered only five servings of dried fish — was it not 10 to start with, before?" Zhao Chen asked, looking at the five empty dishes.
Charlotte let out a sigh. "I… I'm a little worried… whether I can… do well… in this place of Alliance Leader. Set me to fighting a war… and I have no trouble whatever; but set me to administering the Hundred Beasts Alliance… this… this… would it not be better to let my father do it?"
Charlotte looked at Zhao Chen expectantly.
Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte, his gaze steady. "Charlotte, I know your gifts do not lie much in this direction. But you must learn to know your people and use them well. Take that Chieftainess Hu Ya, for instance, and Hu Xin'er, who is forever trailing at your heels — both, as I see it, are talents in the line of governance; their ability to gather intelligence and to use it is very fine indeed. That we got back in good time this once and broke the peace faction's plan — one reason for it was this Chieftainess Hu Ya's working with us in perfect understanding; without that, it could never have gone so smoothly."
Charlotte nodded again and again. "Just so! The Black Fox clan have all along been our Revolutionary Army's brain trust. Their clan has no very great fighting strength. But their ability in command and in planning is very strong; in every tribe's fleets, a staff officer or an adjutant or the like out of the Black Fox clan is never wanting."
"Which is much the same as with our own Secretary Lilith. Look at me: in truth, apart from… developing those starship technologies, I have no other very outstanding ability. As for commanding a battle — never mind you; Shen Bing and Su Lan are both better at it than I am. As for handling internal affairs, finance, logistics, Lilith leaves me behind by more streets than I can count. I need only hand these tasks over to them. It is like a ship sailing upon the sea: every department has its own people responsible for it, and most of the time I need only keep hold of the direction the ship is sailing in. Sometimes, indeed, I need not even take the helm myself! …" Zhao Chen fell at this point to expounding his own method of governance to Charlotte with great relish.
And Charlotte, for all the world as though exploring a new continent, took down what Zhao Chen said.
"There is in fact one point in this method that matters above all the rest. And that is — know your people and use them well!" Zhao Chen folded his arms across his chest, wearing a profound air.
Those few words looked simple; but there was a great deal of doorway inside them.
Were it not that Zhao Chen had his golden finger, which let him see through whether another bore him ill will—
he would truly not have dared, boldly and with an easy mind, to fling authority out and play the hands-off shopkeeper.
"Wait a moment; I shall give you a roster, and you need only go by the people on that roster and use them boldly and with an easy mind. These people, at least for the present, will give no trouble." This so-called roster of Zhao Chen's was in fact nothing more than having certain people come aboard Zhao Chen's starship for Zhao Chen to identify.
"As for your suggestion just now, that your father should hold this post of leader— your father has the ability for it, but he has not the standing. Back when you first returned to the Warhammer, I told you already. I mean to make a 'god,' and you are the 'Valkyrie' I have created. The standing you now hold within the Revolutionary Army surpasses even that of their own tribal chieftains. This Hundred Beasts Alliance is at present, in truth, only a makeshift outfit, leaking at every seam and tottering where it stands. But with you, this Valkyrie, to hold the ground, it is for the present unbreakable! And within the Revolutionary Army at present, you are the only one who can accomplish so much!"
Charlotte felt Zhao Chen's trust, and had a feeling of her heart pounding hard within her.
She nodded heavily. "I understand. I shall strive to do well in this post of Hundred Beasts Alliance leader!"
With that, Charlotte pressed the ordering button beside her.
Zhao Chen glanced over: another dozen-odd fish were about to be buried in the big white cat's belly.
"That's right — arrange a thing for me afterward; I wish to see certain people. And as for our next stage of operations, you had best make ready as well."
"So long as the combat resources are in place, we can act at any time," Charlotte said, blinking.
Zhao Chen said helplessly, "It is precisely the combat resources that are insufficient. We have only just got clear of the Starlight Empire's civil war; less than a month has passed since, so how much in the way of combat resources can we have laid by? In the operation just now, having the interstellar missile ship special fleet lie hidden within the Owl Dragon Second Legion was done for the sake of overawing the enemy. To make the enemy suppose in error that every one of our legion fleets holds firepower of that order. And that is what made the Dragon-folk fleet groups at the other fields know better than to press on. Whereas had it truly come to a fight — at the other four fields, setting aside whether we could win at all— by the end of it our own losses would certainly have been no small ones."
Charlotte shrugged, signifying that she had no way round it either.
Either they fought now, and with combat resources insufficient made up the difference with losses in interstellar warships—
or they waited until the combat resources were wholly in readiness before opening operations, and traded heavy firepower for the smallest possible loss to their own fleets.
"Never mind, never mind. Let us go by the original plan. We are in no hurry in any case; step by step." Zhao Chen muttered it helplessly.
Short of money… short of money…
This war burns money far too fast.
...
The Interstellar Dragon Hall
This was a great meteor cluster lying in the Dragon-folk tribe's home star system.
Which the Dragon-folk tribe had afterward remade into an enormous interstellar fortress, composed of meteors great and small.
And after that, they had treated it besides as an imperial city.
The Dragon Emperor, chieftain of the Dragon-folk tribe, handled here every affair of the Dragon-folk tribe and of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth alike.
"This report — why was I not told of it before!" A man with a dragon's head, a human body, and a dragon's tail was upbraiding a Dragon-folk subordinate who knelt on one knee upon the hall floor.
"Because… because we never anticipated at all that this Owl Dragon Legion would… develop at so miraculous a speed. Though we did learn that the Dragon-Tiger Legion within the Revolutionary Army had a connection with the Starlight Empire's Owl Dragon star system, and that this General Charlotte had ties past counting with the Owl Dragon lord. But as for the Dragon-Tiger Legion's fighting strength, Your Majesty has seen it yourself. It was no more than a match for our own Dragon-folk fleet groups. Who could… have imagined that the Owl Dragon Legion behind it… should be so strong as this." The Dragon-folk subordinate said it aggrievedly.
The Dragon Emperor looked at the information panel that hung before him, upon which stood the freshly updated material on the Owl Dragon Legion.
The first item of which was that the new regime lately established by Qin Xiaotian of the Starlight Empire had been overthrown by the little princess Qin Xiaolei, and that the little princess Qin Xiaolei had been formally crowned Empress of the Starlight Empire.
And that everything behind it was bound up past disentangling with a certain Owl Dragon lord of a certain Owl Dragon holding, and with his Owl Dragon Legion.
One might put it so: within this intelligence concerning the Starlight Empire, those two words, 'Owl Dragon,' appeared at a very high frequency indeed.
Which was proof enough that within the Starlight Empire's system as it now stood, the shadow of this Owl Dragon Legion lay everywhere!