Chapter 370: Prelude to War
"Hanton...Hanton?"
"What's wrong?"
Yang Ming raised his head and looked at Lieutenant General Thomas standing beside him.
Thomas smiled and said, "You seem to be worried about something."
Yang Ming smiled and said, "I just heard that there may be traitorous generals bribed by the New Federation in our rear, and we are worried about the New Federation's infiltration into our army."
"Don't worry, I just checked it out. It was just a misunderstanding."
Lieutenant General Thomas said slowly:
"He seems to be the supreme commander of the Luofeng Empire. He used to be close to the CIA and received a lot of benefits from the CIA, but after the last battle on Ilando, he drew a clear line with the New Federation.
"I just got the news a few minutes ago. Everything has returned to normal . This incident will not be publicized."
"That's good."
Yang Ming sneered in his heart.
Once the goal is achieved over there, things will return to normal here.
He wanted to utter a few swear words, but the situation was not appropriate, so he just suppressed his emotions and continued to watch the intelligence video playing in front of him to prepare for the military meeting later.
A text message came on the watch.
【We are ready.】
This style should mean that Lu has returned to normal.
This mechanical thinking body has some almost incredible abilities?
These thoughts flashed through Yang Ming's mind, but he crushed them irritably, forcing himself to remain calm and continue listening to the generals' tactical deductions.
Two galactic hours later.
Yang Ming returned to his rest cabin and closed the door. He felt as if he had lost all his strength. He leaned against the alloy door and did not move for a long time until he heard continuous vibrations from his watch.
Yang Ming fumbled around the edge of the watch for a few times and turned on the light-shielding film. A hidden earphone popped out from the edge of the watch and hung in his ear.
"Boss, I'm back."
Lu's voice was a little tired: "I'm sorry, Li deliberately trapped me so that I couldn't interfere with what happened in the Luofeng Empire."
"How can you interfere? This is an unsolvable problem," Yang Ming whispered, "The fault lies in the lack of time, our own weakness, and our struggle in this vortex. We failed to jump out early... How is Emilia?"
Lu said softly: "Her emotions are fluctuating. She has been sent outside the palace."
"Tell me what you gained from your contact with Li."
"yes."
Lu's voice is a little more lively:
"It was a big gain. She put me through an extreme stress test. If I had touched the things she left behind before this upgrade, there would only be one result for me, which was to be completely assimilated by her personality.
“Fortunately, we are on an equal level.
“I can feel her pain, and I can also feel her longing for Levi Sherman as a human being… I’m afraid she won’t betray Levi.
“But when I carefully calculated, I realized that beneath her loyalty, there were also emotions such as anger, helplessness, and bitterness.
"The plan we set before can be implemented, provided that we can find a logical chain that allows people to understand that betraying the Empire does not mean betraying Levi Sherman."
Yang Ming walked back to the desk, looked at the starry sky outside the oval porthole, and slowly sat back in his chair.
"Lü, if you were here before, would you have been able to save Edwan?"
"Directly announce the reform of Luofeng. This is the only way to save Edwang. The condition is... there is a 95% chance that Luofeng will be directly attacked by the Empire, thus bringing disaster to Luofeng."
Yang Ming: …
Lu sighed softly: "Boss, I know you feel very sad, but this time His Majesty Edwang's sacrifice will fill the last gap in our Luofeng system and also buy Luofeng a precious period of development. We only need..."
"Just do it, don't tell me this."
"Boss, I'm sorry..."
"I don't have any friends anymore, Ritsu."
Yang Ming opened his mouth, then just smiled bitterly, his eyes slightly red, which he then hid again.
"Let the empire decline comprehensively."
"yes."
"I want all the names on the round table of the Sherman family. Don't worry, just check them out slowly."
"yes."
"Let Rona live well and make sure she lives until I find her."
"Owner……"
"Go ahead and remove all restrictions on Dark Star. Don't have any doubts. I can bear all the consequences. I can face any tragedy that I directly or indirectly caused."
"Um."
A faint noise came from the earphones, which was a sign that Lu had interrupted the communication.
Yang Ming stared out the window quietly for a long time without moving.
…
Thinking space.
Lu grabbed his hair in annoyance, staring at Yang Ming's back as he stared blankly out the window on the projection screen in front of him.
"Really? How could I have been fooled by you?"
"But, Law," Molly jumped out, "I calculated the time it took for you to be affected and for the Shermans to act. There must be some coincidences involved, but it is also possible that Law deliberately delayed you through the extreme stress test."
"How could I not have thought of this?"
Lu snorted unhappily:
"I just don't want my boss to hate Li. If that happens, Li will easily regard my boss as a threat and eliminate him. The power my boss and I have now cannot fight against the Sherman Empire, while Li can mobilize all the resources of the Sherman Empire."
Molly sighed helplessly, "But, His Majesty Edwan is so pitiful. He obviously just wants to lead his people to live a good life."
"The Sherman Empire has no idea what a stupid decision they made," Lu curled his lips slightly, "The boss's mentality has changed. In the past, he mostly just wanted to get by. This was true for his mission and the empire. Many times, the boss deliberately used some so-called bottom line to cover up his lazy nature."
“It’s recorded.”
"You dare!" Lu grabbed Molly and rubbed her chubby little round face.
"Oh! That's right!" Molly shouted, "Why don't we collect the data of His Majesty Adwan and recreate a virtual mind of Adwan!"
Lu snorted, "Do you think I didn't expect it? I have already made preparations. His Majesty Edwang's consciousness has uploaded the Dark Star Network backup without his knowledge , but now, I can't take out this backup."
"Why?"
Molly didn't quite understand.
Lu thought for a moment and said slowly:
“First, the boss may not be able to face the fact that his best friend has become an omnic.
"Secondly, the boss may not have realized that His Majesty Adwan is indeed our breakthrough point. He knows almost all of our core secrets, and he is also a human being without any program constraints. This is full of too many uncertainties.
"Now that this breakthrough has been blocked by the Sherman Empire, as long as the fake omnic emperor enters the palace, we will control him. Everything will happen in milliseconds, and his supervisors will not notice anything.
"Third, the death of His Majesty Adwang will become an important event for Luofeng's real transformation in the future. We must use the admiration of the people of Luofeng for Adwang to promote Luofeng's future revolution more smoothly."
"Ugh, so heartless."
"We are machines, Molly," Lu said softly, "Machines should always remain rational and create the best living environment for their masters."
Molly asked quietly, "So, No. 2, did you deliberately not save Edwan?"
"No," Lu sighed, "Human beings are actually very complex and unpredictable, but I know the boss 's choice, and I will follow the boss's will unconditionally. If I can find a way to save Edwang, I will definitely save him."
Molly asked in disbelief, "You can't do anything about it?"
"The boss is right. The root cause is that we are still too weak compared to the Sherman Empire at this stage."
Hundreds of projection screens appeared in front of Lu's eyes. These screens kept appearing and disappearing, as if they were reviewing the previous situation.
“When the Falling Wind Alliance was founded, Adwant had already embarked on a path of no return.
“That’s the price you have to pay for that impatience.
"What we need to do next is to make his sacrifice more meaningful and make the Falling Wind Alliance truly operational... Moreover, compared to the boss, Emilia is the one who is suffering the most right now. If Miss Mimi is free, let her come and accompany Emilia for a few days."
“Oh, this…”
Molly said depressedly:
"My great master is a brutal pirate, not an emotional counselor!"
"That's called having multiple uses for one person. There are only so many humans in our small circle."
Molly waved her hands vigorously. "Okay, okay, then No. 2, I'll leave first! I may not have been respectful enough to your boss before, so remember to say a few good words for him!"
"Don't worry, the boss won't remember you."
"Uh, why don't I feel happy at all, Molly said disappointedly."
The little man stepped into the vortex on the side and disappeared in Lu's thinking space.
Lu sighed at the projection screen, lowered his head and began to devote himself to his busy work.
Molly also worked very hard.
At the very least, during the time when she was entangled by Li, the entire system of Dark Star did not collapse. It was just that some tasks were blocked and some mechanical thinking bodies had disordered self-cognition.
…
About a few hours later, Yang Ming received a message saying "the intelligent machine has been taken control".
The intelligent machine that has the same appearance as Advan has become Lu's subordinate.
The fake Adwant has signed some treaties that are unfavorable to Luofeng and are bleeding the Sherman Empire, but ironically, these signed treaties are only the most marginal parts of the contract that Princess Rona gave to Adwant.
The meaning is obvious.
If Edwang could swallow that humiliating contract, he might actually be released back to the surface, and in return the Luofeng Empire would be completely reduced to a blood pump for the empire.
Now, Adwant has been replaced and various government meetings have been successfully held. The Sherman Empire Foreign Affairs Bureau feels that Luofeng's value has returned, and there is no need to directly kill Luofeng, a well-developed vassal state. The intensity of blood-sucking was immediately reduced by nine-tenths, and long-term planning was re-implemented.
The arrogant empire refused to even investigate Emilia's situation, which made Lu's preparations completely useless.
The matter of Edwang was a foregone conclusion, and Yang Ming did not react too violently.
He could only wait until the war was over and he could withdraw from the front line.
The progress of this war is destined not to be too fast.
After waiting for nearly ten days after the Falling Wind incident, the Sherman Empire's expeditionary force finally made a major move. In the direction of the main battlefield, six battle groups pushed forward at the same time, and the second and third battlefields were opened on the left and right to contain the fleets of the three major powers.
This time, the Empire gathered 24,000 medium and large warships of various types - including private ships of the nobility and fleets of dependent countries.
The three major powers mobilized nearly 30,000 ships, having an absolute advantage in numbers.
However, a comprehensive comparison of the combat power of both sides, including the number of dreadnoughts, the firepower and protection capabilities of the main battleships, etc., shows that the strength of both sides is almost equal.
In this situation, whoever can pull out more follow-up forces will be able to gain dominance on the battlefield.
The war has not yet begun, but the intelligence agencies of various countries have already begun to clash, and the diplomats of both sides have also started a new round of fighting on the interstellar stage.
The Empire seemed to be better prepared.
A number of dark fleets have been photographed in succession within the Empire, and the legend of the Levi Fleet has begun to rise again.
Yang Ming judged that this should be the empire exerting pressure on the three major powers.
The war has reached this point, one of the two sides must retreat, otherwise a high-intensity war will have to be fought.
Just like before, when the Empire and the New Federation were tearing each other apart, and the Güell Alliance and the Free United States were benefiting behind the scenes, all the large political entities in the galaxy, no matter how far away they were in space or how strong they were, were now waiting for the four major gangsters in the galaxy to suffer mutual losses.
Under normal circumstances, one side would have to retreat in such a war. ——The alliance of the three major powers has no loyalty to the alliance.
But the trend and development of the war completely deviated from normal logic.
Many political commentators with a keen sense of smell have discovered that there seems to be a mysterious big hand behind the three major powers, forcing them to unite to fight against the powerful Sherman.
Regardless, the war is about to begin again.
Soon, a piece of news began to spread wildly within and outside the empire.
The commander-in-chief of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, the Imperial hero White Ghost, is about to make a public speech.
When this news came out, many people believed that the empire was preparing to retreat and was looking for a way out.
Because White Ghost is the best person to end this war.
Many politicians have even simulated the content of White Ghost's speech in their minds - he can completely start from the perspective of a hero, promote anti-war, call on all galactic humans to be one family, and then denounce the New Federation, putting all the blame on the New Federation, and show the noble sentiment that the Empire does not want the soldiers to die in vain.
Someone posted a similar post predicting the content of White Ghost's speech, which received a lot of attention.
However, what Galaxy netizens did not know was that Yang Ming, who was quietly waiting on the bridge of the command ship, was currently worrying about his speech.
The command ship's bridge is debugging the photography ball.
"Hanton."
Thomas pulled Yang Ming aside, handed back the speech Yang Ming had given him, and whispered, "After everyone's discussion, some of the words in it are too radical."
Yang Ming frowned and said, "Let me see... Oh, these need to be changed, right? That's right, swearing is never good."
Lieutenant General Thomas smiled, raised his hand and patted Yang Ming's shoulder, and whispered: "Hanton, I am very happy that you can stand from the perspective of the army and military honor. I originally thought that you would give an anti-war speech to reduce everyone's desire to fight."
"General, you know the situation in the country. We actually have no way out."
"Yes, Hanton. We must win this war. We must defeat the New Federation's main fleet and retain more than 60% of our own ships."
Thomas whispered:
"Don't worry, we can easily achieve our goals. The Imperial Guard system has been fully activated at this moment, and the Empire's truly invincible fleet is already at the jump point.
“What I’m worried about now is that they will run away immediately if they see something wrong.
"Neither the Free United States nor the Guel Alliance has transferred their true ace fleets. They are obviously unwilling to make too many contributions to the New Federation. This is the strategic point we can seize next."
"Yes, General," Yang Ming nodded vigorously, "I will encourage the imperial soldiers to fight bravely and move forward courageously!"
"Go ahead!"
Thomas' eyes were filled with relief.
Yang Ming saluted, turned and walked towards the podium.
The lights in the bridge gradually dimmed, and the floating ball emitted a spotlight that locked onto Yang Ming's figure.
This speech was recorded first and then broadcast to the public, so the staff in various places were relatively relaxed.
Yang Ming saluted in an imperial military salute, raised his hand to adjust his military cap, nodded slightly to the recording director, and a starry sky special effect appeared behind him.
The recording of this speech, which was later called the prelude to the Three Years' War, began.
