The factory director once again hurriedly contacted the chairman, but this time it was not the chairman who answered the call, but his secretary.
"Mr. Lu, the chairman is in a meeting now. You can talk to me if you have anything to say."
The factory director knew that the chairman's secretary also knew quite a bit, so he asked directly, "Has the rescue operation of the 14th Corps already begun?"
Just as the secretary was about to answer, the factory director heard the chairman's voice approaching from the other side.
"Xiao Lu, the Fourteenth Army's operation has already begun."
"You called me this time because I told you I wanted to inform you about this, right?"
The chairman knew what the factory director meant, so the factory director did not continue speaking and waited for the chairman to explain to him.
"I did forget about this matter. I apologize first, but I just had something more important to deal with."
The factory manager also knew that it was meaningless to bring it up again after it had already happened, so he followed the chairman's words and asked, "What happened?"
"The company just learned about the situation at the 14th Corps. There is bad news. There is a problem within them. The original commander Baiquan is nowhere to be found."
"Their statement is that Bai Quan was seriously injured and fell into a coma due to an accident while performing his duties, and the entire mission of rescuing Chen Ming was given to another person."
The factory manager frowned and asked, "What is this?"
"I also want to know what this is, so as soon as I know about this situation, I have to prepare materials and hold an emergency meeting to discuss the impact this incident will have on the company. I am a bit too busy with other things now."
"Honestly, this is no different from a honey trap."
"If Baiquan turns back and dies, then all the agreements we made with the Fourteenth Legion that were not clearly documented may be invalidated by them."
"Sky Steel?"
"Yes, the system mining rights certificate has always been in our hands, and Sky Steel can be said to have always been ours in plain sight."
"It's just that the military used dishonorable means to blockade the galaxy before, so that's why the situation happened."
"So now if the XIV Corps wants they can do that too."
"The company has been cheated, but we still cannot take the initiative to violate the previous agreement. Otherwise, the truth is not on our side. It is definitely not a good thing for us to have a conflict with the Fourteenth Legion now."
“We can only wait until this matter is over and then listen to their explanation and see their movements.”
The factory manager couldn't help but ask, "Why doesn't the company run away when things are like this?"
"The captain of the Conqueror-class ship we sent out said that although the person who took over the Baiquan mission is not as good as Baiquan, he seems to have a good subordinate who can continue to complete the mission."
"Then those of us sitting in the rear must follow his ideas at the front."
"And we were only tasked with a simple attention grabbing task before."
"As long as we can attract Yuhui's main battleship here, the rest will be none of our business. We just need to run away."
"Well, let's leave it at that for now. I just came out to get something. The meeting isn't over yet, so I don't have time to continue talking to you."
The chairman's voice disappeared again on the other end of the line.
After confirming with the factory manager that there were no further questions, the secretary hung up the call.
The factory director said to the terminal in his hand that was connected to Chen Ming: "Xiao Ming, I have some news. There is a problem within the 14th Corps."
He quickly explained to the terminal the news he had just heard from the chairman, but after that, he did not receive any response.
"Xiao Ming? Xiao Ming?"
The factory manager suddenly felt that the situation was not good, but he had no way to help Chen Ming at this time. He could only sigh and sit behind his desk, waiting anxiously.
Just as the factory manager was worried about Chen Ming's safety.
In the outer space of Chen Ming's planet, the battle between Yu Hui and the combined fleet has entered a white-hot stage.
At least a thousand warships from both sides have sunk in space. Even the loss of cruisers has exceeded a hundred, and the losses of destroyers and escorts are countless.
Because of the scale of the battlefield, frigates are not even available, so that so far, destroyers have suffered the most losses among the warships lost by both sides.
However, no matter how many destroyers were lost, no one, not even Yuhui, cared.
All the people involved in this battle and Yu Hui's attention were focused on the core of the entire battlefield.
That is where the seven battleships are located.
Yuhui has three main battleships here, of the same model, all of which are the most common radiation-class unmanned battleships on Yuhui and human battlefields.
Here in the 14th Legion, there is only one Exemplar-class battleship from Tachyon Technology.
The remaining three are two offensive-class heavy battleships built by the 14th Corps itself, and a corps-class aviation battleship that combines the functions of a battleship and an aircraft carrier.
The two offensive-class ships were located right in the center of the entire battle line, deploying two giant scarlet shields that blocked Yu Hui's path like two flaming mountains.
The corps-class aviation battleships are located behind the front line.
It fell behind the other battleships and all the ships in the entire fleet.
If an aircraft carrier is under the protection of a fleet, there is nothing wrong with being at the rear of the fleet.
However, the Legion-class is now doing something very strange, that is, its shield is pointing towards the rear after being deployed.
But that’s not all.
At this time, the shield resonance frequency of several battleships of the Fourteenth Legion was surprisingly consistent with the shield resonance frequency of all ships in the entire fleet.
To the extent that now, there is even a layer of special shield that is visible to the naked eye, like a phantom, covering the shields of all ships below the level of battleships, protecting the spacecraft inside.
The phantom shield covers all directions around the spacecraft like a sphere.
But if you look closely, you will find that the phantom shield is on the shield sphere that protects the spacecraft.
The back hemisphere is pure red, the same color as the legion-level shield.
But in the front hemisphere, in addition to maintaining the same fiery red color as the offensive level, there are also some blue ripples flashing like the radiation level blue shield.
It was as if this phantom shield covering the entire fleet was maintained by several battleships.
And that is exactly the case.
The reason for this situation lies in the battleship itself.
When battleship-level ships join a battlefield, the battle mode of the entire battlefield will inevitably change.
The main weapons of a capital ship are devastating to any ship below the capital ship.
Even if it is a cruiser, even if it is a special Ruler-class heavy cruiser of the Fourteenth Legion that forced the original star zone military to surrender with just one spaceship.
The outcome would be the same in the face of any battleship's main weapon.
However, although the battleship's main weapons have terrifying destructive power, the battleship's hull and weapons are still of normal structure.
This means that as long as the attack power is sufficient, low-level spaceships can also pose a threat to it.
The large weapons of a cruiser are pretty much the minimum that can cause damage to a capital ship.
Therefore, in a battle involving battleship-class ships, victory depends not only on the battleship itself, but also on the fleet following the battleship.
Protect these low-level ships so that they can survive the battle, and use their weapons that can threaten the battleships to help your own battleships put additional pressure on the opposing battleships.
The best form of protection is the combined shield created by the resonance of battleship-level shields and ordinary spacecraft shields at a specific resonant frequency.
Under normal circumstances, the linked shield will always remain as a phantom.
Only when the protected spacecraft is triggered by an attack above a certain energy level, that is, when it is attacked by a main-level weapon, will it directly condense and bear the attack.
It will not block attacks below a certain energy level.
The purpose of this design is also simple.
After all, the linked shield itself is actually the battleship helping other ships to bear the damage of the enemy battleship.
Therefore, if it is really attacked by low-level spacecraft, then the shield itself has no meaning to exist.
Instead, it makes things more convenient for the enemy, allowing more enemies to attack the shields of their own battleships.
The Legion's shield is now aimed at the rear, providing protection from the rear to all ships on the entire front line.
The main reason is to protect against attacks from Yuhui's battleships.
As for why we still need to be on guard against our rear now that the battle line has been opened, there are two reasons. One is that Yu Hui's subsequent support may launch a sneak attack from behind.
The other is the afterglow's flashing engine, which exists even on the main battleship.
The existence of the Flash Engine forced the Combined Fleet to take precautions.
At this time, in the legion-level command room.
Tang Shi, the temporary fleet commander who replaced Bai Quan, is here.
Tang Shi looked to be in his thirties or nearly forty. At this moment, he was looking at the panel in front of him with complicated data and listening to the reports ringing in his ears.
His hands moved somewhat stiffly as he kept clicking on the control panel while issuing instructions.
There were a few beads of sweat on his forehead and he looked extremely nervous.
Just at this moment.
The side door of the command room opened and his deputy Zhang Feng returned to the command room.
Tang Shi suddenly felt like he saw a savior, and his tension was instantly relieved.
Zhang Feng naturally came to his side, helped analyze intelligence, assisted in decision-making, and sorted out the somewhat chaotic battlefield situation.
But this is only the case on the surface. In fact, all major decisions are made by Zhang Feng, his deputy.
Although Tang Shi and Zhang Feng were nominally the commander and deputy, they actually did the opposite.
The reason is very simple. Zhang Feng was assigned to this position by someone.
So even though he is doing his job well now, his heart is full of negative thoughts.
He is capable of commanding an entire combined fleet, but now he can only serve as a deputy, as a so-called think tank.
Cleaning up the mess for a man who became a major general through connections and therefore cannot convince the public, but there is no better candidate who can convince the public.
He even needs to follow the requirements of his superiors and find opportunities to develop his on-the-spot adaptability and exercise his command skills under the current circumstances.
Although there were objections within the legion, they were quickly suppressed, and those who had objections never raised any objection again.
This is also the reason why Zhang Feng is here now, continuing to accompany the prince in his studies.
Zhang Feng knew that although he and the people above Tang Shi could not directly reach into the 14th Corps, it was not difficult to reach into a small force separated from the 14th Corps.
Especially since this force has not yet established itself and even needs the help of other forces to form a joint fleet, the difficulty of intervention is even lower.
To the extent that Zhang Feng now even doubts whether the accident that Bai Quan encountered was premeditated.
Otherwise, under normal circumstances, the troops of the 14th Legion would not have been able to conceal the news so efficiently and at the same time completely suppress all dissenting voices.
However, even if he just knew about this matter, it would pose a considerable threat to his life safety.
So Zhang Feng was just guessing, and he kept his guess deep in his heart and didn't mention it to anyone.
At the same time, he continued to help this man who had no actual ability and could only barely get the qualifications of a major general by relying on years of accumulated experience and the power behind him.
Zhang Feng quickly arranged for the emergency on the front line and saw that the war was not as urgent as before.
He finally had time to say something else to Tang Shi.
What the people above just explained to him.
There is a separate space between the commander-in-chief and other people present in the command room.
Therefore, Zhang Feng was not worried that what he said later would be exposed, and he said directly to Tang Shi: "Commander-in-Chief Tang, I need to tell you about our future plans."
"Arrange? Isn't it to rescue Chen Ming?"
"No, our goal is not to rescue Chen Ming, because his survival will not do us any good, let alone our superiors."
"It is because of his existence that we lost the share of Sky Steel that should have belonged to us."
"Is there anything else?"
Zhang Feng nodded and continued, "So we can just pretend to save Chen Ming, but we can't really save him."
"Besides, the time is almost up now. It's too late for Chen Ming to save him."
"Why do you say that?"
Zhang Feng patiently explained, "Because our original plan was to raid the planet ahead, we sent out the army to rescue based on Chen Ming's coordinates before Yu Hui could react."
"But now, the battlefield has entered a head-on confrontation. We definitely can't break through in a short period of time, and the army landing force can't bypass such a front and land directly."
"This gives Yu Hui time to take action against Chen Ming. Whether it's a transfer or something else, Yu Hui will never give us another chance to save him."
"So far, the mission to rescue Chen Ming has failed."
"We now have only one goal left, to attract Yu Hui's attention, continue to delay time and look for an opportunity, prepare for the jump, and raid Kletka."
“That’s the key, that’s the merit.”
Tang Shi said with some hesitation, "But I saw the coordinate signal sent by Chen Ming in the colony. He should not have been transferred yet."
"And I'm not sure if I can command well. To be honest, I don't even want to..."
Zhang Feng suddenly reached out and patted his shoulder to interrupt him, and said with a serious expression and solemn demeanor: "You are now entrusted with a mission in a critical moment, and many people are looking forward to your achievement."
"And I'll help you too, just do it."
"……All right."
Tang Shi responded reluctantly, and Zhang Feng took over the command of the fleet.
He began to command the entire joint fleet in the commander's communication channel as a nominal deputy.
The captains of several battleships on the battlefield were now inside the communication channel.
They all acquiesced to Zhang Feng's replacement of Tang Shi's command.
In other words, they tacitly accepted this matter because of Tang Shi's existence.
The captains of several ships were of high status and they all knew that something was wrong with the whole process of the incident.
But since Baiquan had been clearly arranged, they did not dare to do anything extra except to immediately notify the legion in private and wait for the legion to respond.
As for the captain of the Exemplar-class battleship sent by Tachyon Technology, he did not have any problems in this regard.
After all, if he died here, the 14th Legion would have to give an explanation to Tachyon Technology.
The Fourteenth Legion will definitely cause trouble for Tang Shi, who joined the Fourteenth Legion through normal channels but gradually rose in status through special external means.
But for him, since it has come to this final moment, if he gives up, all his previous investments will be wasted.
The sunk cost of launching a capital ship is not a small amount.
And although the major general who took over the Baiquan mission was a rubbish, his deputy was different.
Although he was unknown, his command ability was able to make the representatives of all forces in the joint conference accept it in a short period of time, and they saw hope of completing the mission.
Otherwise, no matter how huge the investment was, the loss would not be as great as the loss of a battleship, and they would have run away long ago.
Of course, this mission refers to the mission for Kletka, not the mission for Chen Ming.
Since the previous joint meeting, the various forces have already distributed the benefits of the mission.
Chen Ming's affiliation had been decided at the beginning and he was assigned to the 14th Legion.
So now there is a split within the 14th Legion, and the part that has a grudge against Chen Ming also controls this part of the 14th Legion fleet.
Apart from the government, which did not actually participate in the battle and may still have ideas about Chen Ming, other forces will not try to find Chen Ming for the sake of their already established interests.
Even if there is, they will think that Chen Ming will be taken away by the 14th Corps in the end, so why waste energy to care about him? So for Zhang Feng, the next thing the joint fleet has to do is simple, that is, to disguise and pretend to retreat.
Chen Ming will naturally be tricked to death.
There is a high probability that Yuhui will relax his vigilance, and they will also be able to find an opportunity to directly jump to the nearby galaxy where the replica of the Kletka supercomputer is located.
Zhang Feng quickly took control of the battle situation under his command and was able to completely withdraw from the battle and look for an opportunity to leap.
He is determined to get the Kletka simulator.
Just as the front line was further stretched.
Suddenly, Zhang Feng noticed that there were signs of space distortion behind their front line just before the jump engine arrived.
He immediately ordered the fleet to be on alert.
Soon, another 10,000-meter Afterglow battleship, the Radiance-class, appeared behind them.
Although there are countless large, heavy and small weapons on the ship, the most dangerous weapons on the radiation class are always the two main weapons.
Microsievert-class light radiation cannon.
This is designed into every battleship when it is designed, and it is adapted to the main weapons of the ship.
The name "microsievert" is the smallest unit of measurement for radiation value.
When this radiation-class ship appeared behind the combined fleet, its two microsievert-class light radiation cannons had already opened fire.
Two long, dark purple rays, almost purple-black, crossed horizontally from the edge of the battle line and hit countless warships of the Combined Fleet on the battle line.
Although it cannot be seen by the naked eye, it can be detected through sensors.
The purple beam of light visible to the naked eye is only a part of this light radiation cannon. The main energy of the light radiation it emits is all concentrated in ultraviolet radiation.
These energies hidden from the naked eye are far more powerful than they appear.
And although these two light radiation lines look very thin and long, their actual diameter is greater than that of the tachyon spear.
A large number of ships below the battleship level were hit, which put a huge amount of shield pressure on the legion-level shield that maintained the rear-end linked shield, causing its radiation energy system to almost reach its upper limit.
However, Zhang Feng was not worried at all at this time.
Because the condition of the radiation class that arrived was also very bad.
With just a little thought, it would be clear that their four battleships did not need to be moved at all, and there was no need to distract attention to deal with it.
Because they also have a large number of cruisers with activated shields, which can activate a large number of large weapons on board.
At the same time, they also have a large number of fighter planes designed purely for combat carried by the legion behind them.
The fighter planes that a battleship-class carrier fighter can carry are not like the ones that Storm and Cowherd can carry, which are only a few meters or more than ten meters long.
The fighter jets it can carry are at least capable of competing with cruisers.
What's more, in fact, most of these fighters are designed purely for combat, and often have more powerful combat capabilities than cruisers.
Therefore, this radiation-class ship without any accompanying ships will definitely not have time to launch a second round of output.
Even if they wanted to activate the Flash Engine to escape, they would never give it this opportunity. What's more, the Flash Engine cannot be used at will without restrictions.
No matter how you look at it, the Combined Fleet can easily control it and create a local advantage.
So here, Zhang Feng simply followed the instructions above and handed over this decision, which only required a simple brain analysis to come up with the optimal solution and was not very dangerous, to Tang Shi to handle.
Zhang Feng asked Tang Shi directly: "What should we do here?"
He was just watching Tang Shi from the side when he suddenly panicked.
It's like a candidate who didn't study hard and then found that he couldn't understand the test paper at all during the exam.
And when he looked up, he suddenly realized that the exam time was about to end. This nervousness made his brain a little confused for a while.
Zhang Feng saw his situation and could only helplessly and patiently say: "Calm down and think slowly. You make the decision. You are the commander now."
For a moment, cold sweat flowed down Tang Shi’s forehead again.
He had never commanded such a battle before, and even the simplest tasks seemed extremely difficult to him now.
Anxiety and irritability continued to squeeze out the few remaining moments of his rationality that allowed him to think clearly.
Finally, he issued an order: "Emergency radiation discharge at the legion level! Prevent overload!"
Zhang Feng's pupils shrank suddenly, and he shouted quickly: "Wait!"
But the Legion is their vehicle, and the orders were conveyed at the first opportunity.
The legion level activated emergency radiation dissipation, and all equipment that needed to consume radiation energy was locked. The radiation energy that had been accumulated due to the radiation-level attack began to dissipate completely and could not be stopped.
Right at this moment.
A Radiation-class ship that had been afraid to move in front of the battle line due to the pressure of the number of capital ships instantly activated its flash engine and went around to their rear.
At this time, the legion level had already entered the emergency radial state, leaving the rear gate wide open.
The command communication channel, especially the highest-level command communication channel, suddenly fell silent.
Only the captain of Tachyon Technology, whose face was livid, left two words: "Idiot!"
The captain of Tachyon Technology had known Zhang Feng, who was currently the commander in the actual sense, before. He knew that Zhang Feng’s ability was not enough to make such a stupid move.
The only explanation is that the nominal commander gave the order himself.
The flashing radiation-class ship did not hesitate at all and also activated the two microsievert-class light radiation cannons.
The two beams of light swept across the entire battle line again. A series of continuous explosions that almost spanned the human battle line could be seen clearly even on the planet behind Yu Hui.
As much as one-third of the ships in the Combined Fleet disappeared into space because of this stupid operation.
The outcome of battleship-level battles currently depends mainly on two factors.
One is to see whether the main battleship can withstand it, and the other is to see whether the small ships brought by the two battle parties can suppress the opposite side and not give the opponent's small ships the opportunity to help the main battleship attack their own main battleship.
If the main battleship cannot hold on, the remaining small boats will be scum in the eyes of the enemy main battleship.
If the small boat is suppressed by the opponent, it is equivalent to allowing the opponent to concentrate fire on the main battleship.
No matter how powerful a ship is, once it is hit by concentrated fire, it is bound to be in trouble.
Meanwhile, in the Combined Fleet, big problems had already arisen on the small boat.
This wave of losses cannot be said to be a serious blow, it can only be said to be a complete disaster.
The situation of the battle has begun to inevitably tilt towards Yuhui.
The combined fleet itself had invaded Yuhui's territory, and there were only so many of them in total, so every ship lost was a ship lost.
But Yu Hui is different, their hometown is here and they have constant support.
Even a one-to-two exchange loss ratio is a loss, not to mention a unilateral loss of nearly one-third.
That's why Zhang Feng has been planning the fleet's retreat to prepare for gaining more substantial benefits later.
As a result, he never expected that Tang Shi would actually make such a move that could be said to be completely brainless.
Expose your most vulnerable part to the enemy.
Zhang Feng's face gradually turned pale, and Tang Shi's brain gradually calmed down after making the decision, which made Tang Shi realize what a stupid decision he had just made.
Tang Shi glanced at the fleet and environment inside the galaxy on the sensor with sweat all over his forehead, and he knew that the defeat of the Combined Fleet was inevitable.
Although the plan for a subsequent raid on Kletka still has the possibility of going forward.
However, if a mistake is made, the result will be the loss of at least half of the ships, including the battleships.
There was nothing they could do but leave.
Zhang Feng gradually calmed himself down. He ignored Tang Shi beside him, and calmly organized the fleet quickly in the command channel and began to adjust the formation.
While resisting the frontal pressure from the afterglow, it managed to devour the radiation-class ship that had just passed through the flash engine.
However, another Radiation-class ship that arrived via jump successfully escaped from the encirclement of the combined fleet using its jump engine.
As this ship, Yuhui, joined the front battlefield, the Combined Fleet could no longer bear the pressure from Yuhui's ordinary ships.
Zhang Feng could only say in the command channel: "Prepare to retreat."
But he had one last thing to do before leaving the galaxy.
Zhang Feng found the coordinate signal that Chen Ming's signal generator had been sending on the control panel.
Tang Shi, who had no psychological pressure, immediately realized what he was going to do and said, "This is the last resort..."
Zhang Feng interrupted him directly, and said in a low voice that sounded like he was going to kill someone: "Isn't this the last resort? Don't forget our original purpose."
When he wasn't paying attention to Tang, he continued to do what he was doing.
Soon, in the combined fleet.
There was a Ruler ship that had just been grazed by the rays of the microsievert-class light radiation cannon and was lucky enough to have only part of its hull damaged. Suddenly, it stopped retreating with the fleet and instead suddenly started its jump engine at a dangerous distance.
Yu Hui wanted to stop this sudden strange operation, but was immediately blocked by other warships of the joint fleet around him who were acting according to Zhang Feng's orders.
In the end, the Ruler disappeared in the fleet.
The destination of this Ruler's jump was not somewhere else, but behind Yuhui's front line, just like the two Radiation-class ships just now.
The moment the jump ended, the Ruler-class activated the only three remaining Gauss cannons on its hull that were capable of long-range and precise attacks.
After aiming at the coordinates sent by the positioning signal on the planet, the Ruler opened fire.
It was destroyed by Yuhui's fleet after only firing one round.
But three large-scale live ammunition with exaggerated caliber fired by the Gauss cannon have already flown towards this planet without the protection of atmosphere.
The security system that Yuhui installed on the planet was unable to defend against the attack launched by the ruler who almost jumped to his face in a suicide attack.
Three Gauss shells flew accurately towards the research institute that was still continuously sending out coordinates.
I feel a little dizzy, I feel dizzy when writing this chapter If there are any places that are not well written, please let me know in the comments, I will change it (end of this chapter)