Chapter 507, helping each other?
Gu Hang couldn't help but be stunned when he heard that Humphrey Paul, who had gathered the troops with great difficulty, went to the meeting alone and persuaded the entire fleet, including the Star Army on board, to surrender in one wave, he could not help but be stunned.
Especially when some details of the rumors came in, it made Gu Hang feel even more incredible.
The admiral who surrendered was named Bowen Melander.
During the subsequent investigation of Admiral Melandelli, the Inquisitor detained and interrogated his family, relatives and friends, and searched his residence and office, obtaining some confidential and non-public information.
It is mentioned that Melandelli and Paul are old acquaintances and they have fought side by side. According to his relatives, Melandelli had a very good impression of Paul and thought that Paul was a "determined, infectious and trustworthy leader."
Because of this, when Paul and his Ironclad Regiment were declared traitors by the Empire, Melandelli was very shocked. In his opinion, Paul was simply a model of Space Marines, who had kept the area safe and fought against the Void Zerg for hundreds of years. The Princess Star Region and even the entire Spider Star Region were peaceful because of him, and were not invaded by the Void Zerg.
"How could such a person betray the empire?"
This is what Melandelli once said in front of his family.
He has already said such things, how can he allow such an obvious traitor and sympathizer of the Empire to hold such an important position?
——They obviously overlooked that after that, Melandelli also said: "I will personally capture Paul and bring him to Holy Terra, and make him repent before the Golden Throne of the Emperor!"
Although his attitude seemed a bit problematic, it was not completely unacceptable. Gu Hang was more curious about what Captain Paul said when he came to persuade Melandelli? How could he lead his team to surrender on the spot?
Even the word "surrender" is not accurate.
That should be called 'defection'.
From the information collected from all sides, Humphrey Paul seems to be a very charismatic leader with full charm.
…
The surrender of a senior general like Melandri is a huge crime, and someone has to take the blame.
His family and many of his close friends and relatives in the past were executed; several high-ranking officials in the Spider Universe who recommended him to lead the fleet were also implicated.
Not to mention the political turmoil, the most crucial thing is that after Melandelli defected, the defense force of the Spider Web Universe was almost empty!
The situation, which was already very bad, suddenly turned into a disastrous one.
Of the fourteen star regions in the Spider Web Universe, the three in the southeast had already fallen into Iron Fury's hands; of the remaining eleven, the remaining defense forces were quite weak.
Although there are still some navy and Astra Militarum troops, their number is not even as large as those who have defected.
The subsequent defense may rely mainly on the planetary defense forces urgently drawn from various planets as the main force, and then equipped with the two Mechanicus's forge worlds to support the crusaders, and a large force of the [Blood Rose Sisters] sent by the Inquisition. In this universe, there are many combat sisters working for the Inquisition, and there may even be more than those who directly obey the Empire.
It seems that there are still some main forces, but in fact, they are already quite weak.
But in the Spider Web Universe, there is still a very powerful force: the seven Space Marine Chapters.
These seven chapters were not transferred from outside, but were widely distributed throughout the Spider Web Universe. After all, this was a vast area with 8,000 worlds, so having seven chapters was reasonable. In fact, on average, there was not even one Space Marine per planet.
What's more, these seven regiments may not all be fully staffed.
From this perspective, the forces within the Spider Web Universe that are subordinate to the Empire still have a certain level of strength. Seven regiments, plus the Sisters and some Skitarii, plus a large number of planetary defense forces... they are not weak.
If this force could be gathered together, united as one, and act under a unified command system, then although they could not completely stop the invasion of the Iron Rage Stone, they could at least turn the entire Spider Web Universe into a quagmire of war and drag the entire Iron Rage Stone into it.
In that case, the situation on the Empire side would be much better. As long as the Iron Fury Stone was held in the Spider Web Universe for a few years, even if the final price was to turn the Spider Web Universe into a mess, it would buy the Empire more time to gather its forces.
However, the situation that the empire expected did not happen.
Why do those planets want to smash themselves into pieces?
Surrender becomes a very rational choice.
If we can resist until the empire comes to rescue us, then it is worth resisting.
This is also the biggest reason for most planets when facing interstellar wars: when fighting foreign enemies, there is no doubt that if they do not fight, they will be destroyed; when there is a clear hope that the empire will come to rescue, they can also resist and then wait for others to rescue them.
But in this war, there is nothing. They are not foreign enemies, so surrendering will be treated preferentially; if you fight to the end, don't expect to be rescued. It is obvious that the Empire is using these planets as a "defense line", hoping to trade space for time and let them delay as much as possible, so don't expect to be rescued.
Then who will pay attention to you?
You can't even say that they are disloyal.
Some people were more loyal to the Empire than their hometowns, so they led the planet in rebellion, and were then wiped out by the Iron Legion's Space Marines, who had no idea how many of them were hiding underwater. Others might be quite loyal to the Empire, but considering the need to save their hometowns, they "painfully" chose to surrender.
The other seven trustworthy chapters, the Battle Sisters of the Bloody Rose, and the Skitarii of the Mechanicus were supposed to be regarded as the backbone.
However, their situations are different.
There was a warband that rebelled against the Iron Armor on its home planet. The warband went down to quell the rebellion, but was ambushed by a three-fold coalition of Iron Armor and Fury that had somehow escaped the warband's intelligence network. They were defeated directly on the ground, and only a small number of them escaped.
Two chapters, joined with the Blood Roses, formed a combat force and headed to the rescue of a world called Tianyuan VI, which was struggling under the attack of the Iron Armor Chapter.
As a result, they found out after arriving that this was a trap to besiege a point and attack the reinforcements. In this crucial battle, one of their regiments turned against them, and internal conflicts broke out. Coupled with a large number of Ironclad Space Marines, this elite force was buried on Tianyuan VI.
The Blood Rose suffered heavy losses in this battle.
Among the other four regiments, two stood on their side after being persuaded by the 'Succubus' Humphrey Paul.
The last force that could cause a lot of trouble for Ironwrath is the two Forge Worlds of the Mechanicus, which belong to a system called the 'Alfonzo Cult'.
Of course, they also received orders from the empire to contribute manpower, effort and resources to resist the Iron Rage Stone.
However, their performance was somewhat ambiguous.
The order was obeyed, the Skitarii were sent out, and the equipment and munitions were also sent out.
However, the Crusaders did not send enough troops, and they were independent and did not obey orders from others. In the war, they just sat there doing nothing, not fighting in any important battles, but just playing a supporting role.
The strange thing is that Iron Fury Stone didn't bother them, and when attacking, he basically avoided the places where the Crusader Army was stationed.
It seems like there is some kind of tacit understanding between the two sides.
The Alfonzo sect said, my sphere of influence is limited to this, two forging worlds, plus some core mineral worlds in the universe to provide me with resources, if you don't provoke me, I won't bother to pay attention to you. Although I sent troops, I was protecting my territory; although I also provided equipment to the Empire, you understand that it was only out of necessity.
The Ironclad also said, I respect your sphere of influence, you guard yours, but don't mess with my plans; you can openly provide equipment and arms to the empire, but not too much; if I need to buy anything, you have to sell some to me.
Of course, there is no evidence for these words. They are just some so-called "suspicions" expressed by the Inquisition when it accused the Alfonzo sect.
However, even if there is no evidence, Gu Hang, as a bystander and a third party, stood next to the star map and seemed to hear both parties talking in this way when they were looking at the map and talking.
Gu Hang couldn't help but sigh that this Humphrey Paul was really amazing.
"Succubus", this is the joking evaluation that Gu Hang gave to Paul in private.
But in fact, it contains Gu Hang's considerable fear.
This person's charm attribute is really maxed out. The most important thing is that the Iron Armored Corps has been very strong in the past hundreds of years and has established influence everywhere. Although there are people like the Bauhinia Rebellion who have a grudge against the Iron Fury Stone, there are actually more people who have received their help and stand on their side.
Of course, just having connections and past friendships may not be enough. In addition, it still depends on Paul's diplomatic skills and the exchange of interests.
Friendship is the foundation; diplomatic ability and leadership charisma are the means and methods; exchange of interests is the essence.
What benefits can those who surrender, defect, and stand on the side of Iron Fury Stone get?
Simple benefits were definitely not enough. No matter how much Humphrey Paul talked, it could not change the fact that Iron Fury Stone was rebelling, nor could it change the fact that Holy Terra had sent one warning after another, with the wording becoming increasingly harsh.
No matter how many benefits there are in the present, if the final result is failure, it will all be in vain.
Obviously, Paul convinced many people that he could eventually succeed.
This success may not mean overthrowing an empire.
That's too dreamy.
But at least it was able to prevent the Empire's interference within the region, so Iron Armor would have "won".
The Purple Gold Flower Rebellion more than 120 years ago is a good example.
Although the scale of their actions now is much larger than it was then, it is not so easy for the empire to compromise; but also because of the large scale and more terrifying situation, the "united front value" created may become very high.
As long as there are a series of military victories and a growing momentum, more and more people will believe that the Iron Legion will win in the end.
What's more, sometimes when Iron Armor hits them in the face, the choice facing many forces is to die, or to believe that Iron Armor can win.
Then what to choose?
Naturally, it is easily the latter.
Once again, I want to emphasize that this is a "human civil war" after all. If you lose the greenskins, you will not be slaughtered; if you lose the abyss demons, everyone will be corrupted into psychopaths and finally sacrificed; if you lose the void zerg, the whole planet will become food...
Of course you have to fight to the end when you fight a foreign war. Anyway, you will die in the end whether you resist or not, so I will definitely bite you before I die.
In a civil war, even if they surrender, the powerful will still be the powerful, and may even become more powerful; civilians can also survive, and their will to resist will be greatly reduced.
…
The situation in the Spiderweb Universe is already rotten.
Gu Hang saw this and was shocked.
Sometimes he couldn't help but compare, if it were him or the Alliance, and they launched such a wave in the Eastern Universe, could they create the same momentum as 'Iron Fury Stone'?
I'm afraid that's not possible.
First of all, there is still a gap in hard power. The Alliance will need four years to build up a navy, but Iron Fury has it now, and it is even stronger. After obtaining the fleet led by Melandelli, it is even stronger. The two sides are almost incomparable.
As for ground forces, the two sides might be able to compare their strengths. Although Ironclad might have over 10,000 Space Marines, Fury and Stone Shield must have also been reborn, with a total of more than 2,000 to 3,000 Space Marines each, adding up to more than 15,000 Space Marines.
This is still a conservative estimate.
The Phoenixes that the Alliance could produce strictly abided by the regulations of the Space Marine Codex, and the number of those who obeyed the rules did not exceed one thousand.
However, in terms of quality, I'm afraid no one would dare to underestimate it after that bloody fight with the Fury Corps.
Moreover, Gu Hang was confident that the quality of the Alliance Army definitely surpassed that of Tie Kai's famous auxiliary army.
However, there is one thing that Gu Hang and his alliance cannot compare with Tie Kai: hundreds of years of accumulated reputation.
This is something that Gu Hang cannot make up for even if he has a diplomatic master with maximum charm.
Without reputation, it would be difficult for Gu Hang to convince many people to stand on his side and believe that he could achieve the ultimate victory and not resist to the end for the empire.
His alliance is actually the same as Iron Rage Stone. If they rebel, they will not be dragged into the quagmire of war in their own core area and unable to extricate themselves.
From this perspective, it is indeed unlikely that the Alliance will be able to achieve an effect like Iron Rage Stone after choosing to rebel.
The reason why Gu Hang started thinking about this question was that he recently received a handwritten letter from Humphrey Paul.
Above, Paul invited the alliance in the south to start an uprising.
Paul promised that he would never go south, and the two sides could engage in trade and even help each other!
(End of this chapter)
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