Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 544

Chapter 542, Solving the Itch in the Throat

. Wang Ningyi ultimately chose to surrender.

No matter how tough one’s words, they couldn’t outsmart reality.

The Space Marines had captured almost all of the starport’s key strongholds, and the successive Imperial Legion soldiers had no way of retaking them. Firepower emanating from the starport destroyed the outer star forts and armed space stations.

The entire planet’s orbital defenses were practically destroyed.

Once the Alliance’s main fleet cleared the orbital threat, only the ground artillery would remain, and they would undoubtedly be powerless to confront the Alliance’s main fleet.

If the Alliance had been even more ruthless, clearing the ground artillery fortresses corresponding to a region of space, and then, ensuring they could not be intercepted, launching Sky-Burning Torpedoes, they would have been able to put an end to the enemy once and for all.

In short, in his view, the war was over. Further battles were meaningless.

As Huseppe had said, perhaps fewer casualties would be better.

Moreover, although the surrender was unconditional, Huseppe had hinted that they would not be too harsh on the surrendering rebels. They had to go to a prisoner-of-war camp, but the conditions in the Alliance’s camps were quite good. Living standards were guaranteed, and the Alliance’s military discipline was strong, so there wouldn’t be any abuse of prisoners.

Of course, some necessary labor was required.

In the future, if the war was victorious, the prisoners might be released home. If the war continued, there might be a prisoner exchange. Failing that, the prisoners could join the Alliance, and the Alliance always had its doors open.

For Wang Ningyi personally, the conditions for surrender were quite good. While he certainly wouldn’t become a general or hold a high position, the Alliance promised him a decent standard of living.

These factors combined to convince the captive Wang Ningyi to finally agree, and he issued a planet-wide surrender declaration at the starport.

However, while he was the commander-in-chief of the Upper East Star’s garrison, surrender wasn’t something he could simply call for, and the hundreds of millions of soldiers worldwide would surrender.

That was impossible.

The over 200,000 soldiers stationed at the starport had rarely caused any major problems. After Wang Ningyi’s surrender, the defenders of strategic points manned by the Phoenix Space Marines, frustrated at their inability to capture them, followed the general’s orders in frustration. They allowed a single Alliance ship to approach, allowing the Alliance soldiers to attack and disarm them.

Feeling attacked from both sides, armed space stations, even the last surviving star fortresses, surrendered, allowing the Alliance soldiers to take over.

However, compared to the decisiveness of the defenders in orbit, the rebels on the surface were much more hesitant.

After the initial chaos, some troops refused to resist as promised. But soon, officials from Upper East Star, along with a general from the Imperial Legion, jointly issued a statement declaring Wang Ningyi a “coward” and a “traitor.”

They also issued a statement to the entire surface force, demanding continued resistance. Furthermore, they mobilized a portion of their forces to attack a surface fortress complex.

The surface artillery under their control opened full-scale orbital fire, bombarding Alliance ships and landing craft.

Their actions still resulted in considerable casualties on the Alliance side.

Over a dozen landing ships were shot down, crippling three of the vanguard divisions about to land. Several infantry regiments that had already landed, having barely taken control of the fortress, were besieged. Soldiers who had previously surrendered were also stirring to revolt, and the situation suddenly became dire.

General Wang Ningyi, still at the starport, watched with deep sorrow.

He felt a pang of regret.

Having made so many mistakes before, was it time to just give up at this critical moment? He had once comforted himself with the lives of so many soldiers. But now, it seemed, everyone still wanted to fight to the end. However

, he remained pessimistic about the overall resistance on the planet’s surface.

The current ferocity would only temporarily catch the Alliance fleet off guard. By the time the main Alliance forces reacted and launched an orbital bombardment, they would be unable to withstand the attack, lacking orbital defenses and protected only by the orbital artillery battery. Even if they could initially resist, as surface fortresses were destroyed one by one and more Alliance troops landed, any resistance would eventually be annihilated.

Then, from the observation window of the starport tower, he saw the main force of the Alliance arrive in orbit around the Upper East Star.

First, a battlecruiser, then another, and then… nothing.

Just like that?

Stunned for a moment, Wang Ningyi suddenly turned his head and looked at Huseppe standing beside him, his expression grim: “You lied to me!?”

Huseppe had previously claimed that the main force of the Alliance fleet was just outside orbit!

That should have been eight massive warships, dozens of cruisers, a massive fleet of over five hundred!

But now, the Alliance ships he saw with his own eyes were not only two battlecruisers, but the total number of warships had shrunk by more than tenfold!

Fifty Alliance ships were lucky to be participating!

At this point, how could he not understand that he had been deceived?

He was filled with regret, immense regret.

If only he had known that the Alliance’s main fleet wasn’t even here, with only a few ships, especially just two battlecruisers. The Retribution-class battleships and Zhuge-class aircraft carriers, the most threatening in positional warfare, were completely absent… With that fleet’s strength, they wouldn’t have been able to capture Upper East Star!

Even if a Space Marine managed to breach the defenses, capture the starport, or even manipulate the starport’s firepower to attack their orbital defenses from behind, as long as they continued to resist, as long as the ground-based orbital artillery batteries activated promptly, the combined firepower would have been enough to repel the Alliance’s attack.

With a bit of courage, the surface-based orbital artillery batteries could fiercely destroy the starport. Even without the starport’s firepower to attack from behind, Upper East Star’s surviving orbital defenses, combined with surface firepower, would still be able to repel the Alliance’s weak fleet!

However, Wang Ningyi’s surrender virtually destroyed that possibility.

The starport’s self-destruct system had also been controlled by the Space Marines, but what if the remaining soldiers dared to place bombs everywhere and self-destruct directly?

Without his surrender order, wouldn’t the surface railgun array have been thrown into chaos immediately?

But regardless, he seemed doomed.

Thinking of this, he wasn’t actually that angry.

But on the surface, he still had to maintain an angry attitude.

Huseppe didn’t expose it.

He said with a gentle smile, “You are so loyal and brave, I can only leave this inscription. But there is no need to be too angry. Upper East Star will eventually be conquered by the Alliance. Your wise decision has saved the lives of millions defending it in orbit. Those who stubbornly resist on the surface are the most foolish. They will drag countless people into the war, but ultimately they will change nothing.”

…

The resistance on the surface of Upper East Star did cause quite a stir, but it was not of great significance.

Without the support of starports and star fortresses, ground-based orbital firepower alone would not be enough.

After all, ground-based artillery cannot be moved, and the area of space they can cover is relatively limited.

The Alliance fleet can simply avoid strong areas.

The Alliance ships can easily clear a small area of relatively safe space with the strength of two battlecruisers in areas where ground firepower is not strong.

Then, the Alliance can release the army and launch a ground attack.

The loss of orbit and the surrender of the Supreme Commander will deal a huge blow to the morale of the ground defenders. Their will to resist wasn’t that strong.

The rebels from the Princess Star Region might be quite formidable. However, while Upper East Star was said to have hundreds of millions of defenders, the total number of these rebels was only around 10 to 20 million, with a significant number of elite troops stationed in orbit having surrendered.

The bulk of the remaining defenders were the Planetary Defense Forces, recruited from Upper East and surrounding areas by the Fury Legion before the siege of Upper East Star.

Their combat effectiveness and will were even more worrying.

Under these circumstances, the Alliance’s land offensive, after overcoming initial difficulties, quickly gained momentum.

This was especially true with the addition of two of the Alliance’s most powerful units to the ground battle:

the 300 Space Marines led by Carduso.

They were unnecessary for simple starport defense; ground combat was where their effectiveness was most fully realized.

Besides Carduso’s Space Marines, another key unit was the Alliance’s National Knights. While

called a Knights Order, they were in reality a Titan Legion.

With a Warlord-class Titan at its core, over twenty Warhound-class and Reaver-class Titans formed the backbone, along with over seventy Knight mechs of various types, forming a legion of iron giants.

Combined with the convergence of multiple Alliance armored divisions, Lion King tanks led by Lion tanks, and thousands of armored vehicles, with hundreds of Army Aviation fighters constantly patrolling overhead,

this powerful torrent of steel razed one surface railgun fortress after another.

Under immense military pressure, the Alliance’s psychological warfare tactics never ceased.

For the past few months, the persistent “lies” that the Iron Fury Stone was doomed and the Alliance had penetrated the core of the Spider Web Universe continued to be broadcast. Under Huseppe’s persuasion, General Wang Ningyi, having finally come to his senses, repeatedly persuaded his old subordinates on the ground to surrender.

Often, when the main force of the Princess Legion, accompanied by a large number of planetary defense forces, guarded a key fortress on the surface, the Alliance proved more difficult to defeat. At such times, Wang Ningyi would directly dial the channel of the fortress’s commander and have a heart-to-heart talk with him.

With repeated conversations, he could sometimes persuade them to surrender.

Even if he couldn’t persuade them to surrender directly, he could at least shake their morale.

That was a good gain.

From that perspective, Wang Ningyi was quite useful.

Huseppe couldn’t help but boast about him,

saying he was worth a thousand soldiers! He even promised to report his achievements to him.

Even with that sour look on his face, Wang Ningyi sometimes harbored a lingering sense of anticipation.

What if… what if the Alliance really offered me a high position and generous salary, allowing me to work properly within the Alliance?

Should I accept? Or accept? Or accept?

…

The complete conquest of Upper East Star would obviously take time.

But the outcome was already determined.

Even after the outcome was decided, the battlecruisers, the Wing and the Koroja, had departed.

The army could already handle the rest, and there was no need to keep these two massive ships stationed on Upper East Star.

The next target was Guangfeng Star.

The Alliance hoped to replicate the same strategy.

Guangfeng Star was similarly completely blocked from external communications by the Alliance. Unaware of what had transpired on Shangdong Star, they had no prior defenses against such tactics.

However, Wang Ningyi’s acceptance of communication with the Alliance and his eventual surrender after being captured were, frankly, unexpected events, unlikely to be replicated.

The Guangfeng Star rebel leader consistently refused to communicate with the Alliance and refused to allow any Alliance vessels, even non-combat vessels, to approach.

There was no way around it.

Despite this, the Alliance found an opportunity.

Three weeks after the arrival of the Flying Wing and the Koroja, they seized it.

They discovered ships operating in low orbit on Guangfeng Star.

They appeared to be conducting large-scale planetary-scale material transports.

After a brief discussion, two battlecruisers led an assault.

Facing threats from orbital defenses and ground-based artillery, the battlecruisers destroyed the fleet operating in Guangfeng Star’s low-Earth orbit.

They weren’t large or powerful ships

, but they were a rare and active force within Guangfeng Star.

Previously, when the Alliance’s main fleets were operating in the Proud Claw star system and unable to focus on Guangfeng and Upper East, small fleets hidden within the orbital defense systems of these two planets had secretly launched surprise attacks against the Alliance’s logistics fleet, achieving some success.

Now that this small fleet had been destroyed, Guangfeng had lost all ability to launch offensives.

So, leaving them there was no longer a major problem.

After all, Upper East had already been captured.

While the fighting on Upper East continued, Alliance engineering teams had already landed on the surface to begin construction of warehouses.

Later, Upper East would serve as the Alliance’s logistics base for the offensive against the Proud Claw star system.

Many new recruits trained in the Alliance’s homeland would also be transported there in batches.

On the one hand, this would allow them to participate in combat training and participate in the ground war on Upper East. On the other hand, it would also provide a ready supply for the frontline combat forces.

With Guangfeng completely deprived of its offensive capabilities, whether or not it was captured was of little consequence.

The two major concerns had been resolved.

(End of this chapter)