Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 680

Chapter 678: Sacrifice is the cornerstone of the empire

Does Xi Rui have to be the sole commander for this mission?

Not necessarily.

The Alliance also has outstanding generals available. Whether it’s the two chapters or Alliance generals like Yan Fangxu and Perbov, they could all fill this role.

Just as Gu Hang already had various contingency plans for dealing with the remnants of the northern corps, even if Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping were to prove their incompetence, it wouldn’t hinder Gu Hang’s strategy.

However, if the remnants of the northern corps were completely disregarded, Gu Hang would have to leave behind not only generals but also a number of troops for a feint attack. The

remaining troops couldn’t be weak, otherwise the feint attack wouldn’t succeed, instead appearing weak and potentially allowing the Zerg to push them back, a loss that wouldn’t outweigh the gains.

However, if the remaining troops were too numerous and too strong, the probability of the feint attack succeeding would increase significantly. However, the manpower required to annihilate that massive reinforcement would be substantial, placing Gu Hang under even greater pressure and reducing the margin for error.

There was no choice, so of course there was no other way.

But isn’t that a choice?

Gu Hang believed that Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping had already demonstrated qualities that reassured him to a certain extent.

Gu Hang’s original worst-case scenario envisioned a rebellion by the remnants of the Northern Front, which he would suppress. He would then split the remnants of the Northern Front Legion, retaining some troops and taking others with him, creating a more dispersed structure for the Alliance to take over.

However, that scenario would not only result in significant losses of combat effectiveness due to internal strife and suppression, but the disintegrated Northern Front Legion would also suffer from low morale, resentment, and become virtually useless.

The situation would undoubtedly be far worse than it was now.

Objectively speaking, Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping’s prudent actions had resolved a significant problem for him.

And commanding the remnants of the Northern Front in this brutal and mortal mission, Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping, two former high-ranking members of the Northern Front Legion, were the best choice.

By maximizing the combat effectiveness of the remaining Northern Front Legion, Gu Hang would significantly reduce the number of troops he would need to remain behind to conduct feint attacks, making the northern strike against the Zerg reinforcements more reliable.

Gu Hang naturally considered the issues Xi Rui was worried about.

He considered the question of how many people would die, but he didn’t have an answer.

War, that’s what it is.

Sacrifice forged the human empire.

Furthermore, Gu Hang didn’t believe Xi Rui wouldn’t understand these things.

He might be hesitant at first, but he would eventually figure it out.

The other question, however, deserves a little more comment.

“Just do your best. I believe that the Black Crusade and the Anti-foreign Order are the backbone of our forces. Moreover, I will leave some troops, especially a considerable number of the army, under your command to cooperate with your actions.”

“Don’t worry about casualties, and don’t worry about not being able to maintain the offensive, or what will happen if you maintain the offensive but are still discovered. As long as you try your best, I believe that your offensive will bring a lot of pressure to the Zerg.”

“Even if they are eventually discovered, the Zerg cannot ignore the pressure you bring. It’s nothing more than changing from a feint to a strong attack, from attraction to containment.”

“It is impossible for the Zerg to support their southward troops in the first place, and your mission will be considered a success.”

At this point, Gu Hang’s tone became more serious: “Marshal Xi Rui, I believe you can see that this is a very important task. It is indeed a bit difficult, but it is by no means an impossible, suicidal task. My requirement for this operation is that the goal must be achieved. This is a battle that is decisive for the entire war. It is a death order. Do you understand what I mean?”

Xi Rui was awestruck.

He certainly understood the seriousness of the situation. He nodded solemnly and assured Gu Hang,

“In the name of the Black Crusade, I will accomplish this mission!”

…

“Attack, attack! In the name of the Black Crusade, attack!”

Xi Rui shouted loudly into the comm, his usual composure gone.

This had been eighteen days since his conversation with Gu Hang.

Since then, the Alliance forces had moved with remarkable swiftness and efficiency.

The troops assigned to Xi Rui were quickly deployed.

Not many naval forces were left behind. After all, the battle against the Zerg reinforcements from the north would primarily be a naval engagement. The Alliance’s main fleet would undoubtedly be taken with them. Leaving behind the remaining warships of the northern remnants, along with the Black Crusade’s Fourth Fleet’s flagship, the Cross Black Star, would be a good thing.

Under these circumstances, using the naval fleet to engage the Zerg fleet in a naval battle across the universe was unwise.

It wasn’t that the Zerg fleet here was particularly powerful, but it was at least significantly larger than the fleet Marshal Xi Rui would have commanded after the Alliance’s main fleet departed.

To put it bluntly, he only had the remaining ships of the remnant northern army. With these ships, he dreamed of launching a sharp offensive capable of drawing the Zerg’s attention.

Such an attack would be suicidal, not offensive.

On the other hand, Xi Rui possessed a sufficient army.

The remaining northern army numbered between 20 and 30 million men. Excluding those unfit sailors, the remaining armies totaled tens of millions.

The Alliance Army had six remaining army groups—not quite full strength, but still exceeding 100 million.

Meanwhile, the Fury and the New World Torch each had 200 Space Marines remaining. Add to that 300 from the Black Crusaders and 100 from the Argent Watch…that totaled to 800 Space Marines alone.

Add to that a small Titan Legion conscripted from the Forge World of Aramita and over 2,000 Battle Sisters of the Holy Lily.

Overall, he had a substantial and elite force at his disposal.

In a land battle, he could indeed put some pressure on the Zerg.

There was no fun in naval battles, but there was fun in land battles, so the only way to fight was this: select a planet that was very important to the Void Zerg, then go through the most difficult deployment process, and then use the limited and insufficient fleet to provide orbital cover.

Gu Hang agreed to his plan, and at the beginning of the plan, before the main fleet left, he provided some help to Xi Rui. The Alliance’s giant ships attacked, temporarily driving away the Zerg’s biological ships, and helping Xi Rui’s subordinates complete the most difficult stage of troop deployment.

A large number of troops finally entered the Dantao planet safely.

Dantao was the target battlefield they chose.

The reason for choosing this place was that this planet was originally a populous land in the Queen’s Star Domain, a hive world with a population of 90 billion. And now, it has become a very huge digestion site for the Zerg.

Within Dantao, many people were still alive as infected people. They had no ability or consciousness to resist, but even so, they had not yet been completely digested,

let alone transported away.

Actually, there was no need for that. The Zerg Queen seemed to be using it as a hatchery. Numerous Zerg swarms were simply born here, then sent directly to the front lines to replenish their losses.

The Zerg were unwilling to lose this place.

The Alliance had previously attempted to drop an extermination weapon there, but it had failed. While the Zerg ships had been driven away and a cleared area had been theoretically created, when the Burning Sky torpedoes struck, countless flying demons swarmed into the stratosphere, destroying the torpedoes before they could detonate.

While those demons were eventually wiped out, they were nothing to the Zerg.

The loss of a single Burning Sky torpedo was a significant loss for the human army.

This time, targeting Dantao, a vast biomass storage facility, meant the Zerg wouldn’t be distracted or drawn to it.

But at this stage, the rest depended entirely on the ground forces themselves.

The remaining fleet on the northern front was truly devastated. After the Alliance’s main fleet departed, it was unrealistic for the remaining ships to fight tooth and nail.

But they didn’t expect to offer much help to the ground forces, nor did they even dare to hope to completely drive away the Zerg ships and prevent them from providing orbital support to the ground. They simply wanted to prevent these Zerg ships from providing reckless and costless support.

More battles would have to be fought by the ground forces themselves.

This battle would last for two weeks.

Everything was going according to plan.

The Zerg were truly unwilling to give up. Not only was the vast biomass within the Single Peach Planet being transformed into a Zerg army, but more Zerg bio-ships, carrying even more Zerg troops, were descending to the surface, engaging the human forces in a bloody battle.

The war situation was undoubtedly deteriorating for the human side.

The Zerg swarm within the Single Peach Planet was already numerous, and now there were reinforcements arriving from outside. Furthermore, as time went on, more and more hatcheries would be added within the Single Peach Planet. Within the massive Hive World, originally home to 90 billion people, there was ample biomass to be transformed into various Hive monsters.

Yet, from the same perspective, Xi Rui felt fortunate: he had, so far, completed the mission Gu Hang had assigned him relatively smoothly.

The battle had been so arduous, it was understandable that the Zerg’s attention had been fully drawn to the single peach.

In fact, the effect was a bit exaggerated.

The Zerg swarm on the single peach threatened to overwhelm the ground forces.

At this point, why maintain the offensive?

Just hold on.

But holding on now would require an offensive: the losses in ammunition and personnel were far greater than expected. The delivery of new reinforcements and supplies to the ground required transport ships delivered via orbit. Transport ships required clear, unthreatened space.

The remnants of the Northern Front’s ships lured the Zerg bio-ships away, while the remaining ships escorted the transports as they suddenly approached. Despite this, the Zerg’s evolved bio-cannons and the large number of flying demon worms on the ground still posed a significant threat to the landing transport ships.

This required the ground forces to launch an attack from the ground as the transport ships arrived, destroying the Flying Demon Zerg’s hatcheries and bio-cannon nests. Only then would they have a chance to land the transport ships smoothly.

The ground forces had already suffered heavy casualties in personnel, equipment, and ammunition, and were desperately awaiting resupply from the sky. Now they had to fight a desperate offensive?

There was no other way, they had to fight this way.

Often, after heavy casualties, replenishment of ammunition, equipment, and personnel would only slightly offset the losses. The Zerg bio-fleet would then return, forcing the human transport ships to flee immediately, otherwise they would be intercepted and suffer even greater losses.

This war lasted for eighteen days.

By now, Marshal Xi Rui no longer felt any pain at the reported losses—he had become numb to them.

The total losses over those eighteen days were estimated to have exceeded ten million. On the ground, the main force of the battle had long since shifted from the remnants of the northern front to the Alliance Army.

It wasn’t that Xi Rui was deliberately conserving his forces, but rather that the remnants of the northern front had been further depleted. By the sixth day of the intense ground war, the remaining ten million ground troops on the northern front had already suffered losses exceeding forty percent. Without the massive intervention of the Alliance Army, let alone maintaining the offensive, they would have been completely annihilated.

Of his three hundred most loyal Black Crusaders, two hundred and sixty had already been lost, leaving only a few dozen aboard ships, operating the battle barge “Cross Black Star” and several strike cruisers. These vessels required specialized Space Marines to operate at their full capacity.

In other words, Xi Rui’s Black Crusaders had been fully deployed.

The Argent Watch had also been fully deployed, and Qin Zhiping himself was already on the ground.

What was left of the remaining northern forces?

By this point, Xi Rui had completely disregarded the possibility of completing his mission of “attracting and containing the enemy.”

It had already far exceeded expectations.

According to estimates, the Zerg ahead was already over three times the size of the Zerg when Gu Hang was there.

This was certainly mission accomplished.

The question now became how long they could maintain the pressure on the Zerg.

As the battle progressed, the loss of manpower was of secondary concern; the loss of equipment was becoming increasingly difficult to replace. Projecting forces to the planet’s surface was becoming increasingly difficult. What would happen when the troops needed to be withdrawn?

He quickly stopped thinking about these things.

The battle continued, day by day, a matter of gritting his teeth and holding on, minute by minute.

On the 19th, losses had risen to 11 million. On the 25th, a major failure in ground support resulted in the deaths of over two million men aboard the transports. Furthermore, due to the lack of support, ground battles suffered a series of devastating defeats, bringing total losses to 37 million by the 28th. It wasn’t until the 32nd that the devastating losses were halted. But the cost was the destruction of the small Titan force recruited from Aramita. Only then did they destroy several key Zerg nests, allowing support to reach the surface and halt the collapse.

While the bleeding had been stopped, the Titans were now depleted. What was next?

As expected, on the 39th, the ground support failed again.

Seeing the imminent collapse, Xi Rui was prepared to sacrifice over two hundred Space Marines before the bleeding could be stopped. However, on the fortieth day, the Zerg fleet suddenly retreated.

Xi Rui’s first reaction was a huge sigh of relief. The fleet could finally deploy support to the ground, much more safely, and even provide some orbital fire support for the ground forces. The pressure was immediately relieved.

But why would the Zerg fleet retreat?

Of course, they couldn’t have fought it off.

The battle on Commander-in-Chief Gu’s side should have already begun, right?

Thinking of this, Xi Rui became worried again.

Has his own mission been completed?

What’s the situation on Commander-in-Chief Gu’s side?

————

This chapter makes up for yesterday’s.

I really didn’t finish writing it yesterday.

I got some infection during the change of seasons, and I have a runny nose and a dizzy head for two days.

I will try to finish one more chapter before going to bed tonight.

(End of this chapter)