Chapter 809: 27 Years of Dark Expedition
The safe zone policy was proposed by the Dark Side Expeditionary Command, and of course it would eventually have to be reviewed by Gu Hang.
Gu Hang fully affirmed this policy, believing that it is indeed a feasible way to solve the problem under the current circumstances.
Let’s see how it is being implemented in the core area of the Magre universe.
If necessary, this policy can be extended to the entire Dark Side Crusade.
At present, the Dark Side Expedition has been going on for 27 years. The main battlefield is still in the Magre Universe.
But in addition to the McGregor space, the alliance has also opened up operations in four other space realms.
They are the Star-Swallowing Universe and the Infinite Universe in the north, the Forward Universe southwest of Magre, and the Adam Universe west of the Eastern Universe.
Including McGregor himself, the flames of the Dark Crusade have spread to five cosmic realms.
The situations of these five cosmic realms need to be discussed separately, as they are all different.
The entire Magre Universe had actually been recovered. The core area controlled by the Archavon royal family was the last large area. After conquering it, it basically marked the end of the expedition to the Magre Universe.
Among the more than 5,000 worlds in the Magre universe, 98% have been recovered. The remaining hundreds of worlds are scattered everywhere. It only takes a detachment from the main fleet to be responsible for the cleanup and deal with them, which will not affect the overall situation.
Of course, the many worlds that were recovered were not without problems. Not to mention the worlds that had to implement the safe zone policy, the ordinary worlds, which accounted for the largest number, actually still had serious problems.
According to the coalition government's estimates, the McGregor Universe will bring a total of 21 trillion in negative fiscal revenue to the coalition in the next ten years.
If the Alliance governed this space in the traditional way of the Empire, the burden would not be so high.
It can even make money.
After all, according to the traditional model of the Empire, local planets are left to the local planets to govern themselves. The Empire will not interfere too much when there is no need - except for collecting imperial taxes.
Wouldn't it be possible to make money just by collecting taxes without having to bear the cost of governance?
It seems that all the worlds in the Magre universe have implemented a safe zone policy similar to the Alliance.
But Gu Hang didn't like this method at all.
What’s the point of recovering like that?
We do not expect those worlds recovered from the Dark Side to reach the level of the Alliance’s homeland, but we at least expect them to reach the level of the Eastern Universe.
It is precisely because of such expectations that the Alliance is willing to bear huge financial losses and very high ruling costs to govern these worlds.
Investment, infrastructure, chaos and corruption management, industrial development... Ten years of losses, just let it be losses.
As long as the five thousand worlds in the Magre universe can turn losses into profits and get on the right track in ten years as planned by the central government of the Alliance, the speed of development will increase rapidly every year, and they will be transformed from a financial burden on the Alliance into another engine for the Dark Side Expedition.
The Forward Universe, located southwest of the Magre Universe, was actually the direction of attack led by Marshal Yan Fangxu. A few years ago, when they had beaten the Magre Universe to a pulp, some vanguard troops entered the Forward Universe and launched a first-hand operation against it.
By now, the main problems in the Magre universe have been solved, and the main force of the Dark Expedition will also move into the Forward universe.
This is a universe with seven star regions and three thousand worlds. It is considered small to medium-sized among all universes. Yan Fangxu estimated that it would take about fifteen years to conquer it, which is less time than the Magre universe and the progress will be faster.
The operations against the Magre Space Domain and the Advance Space Domain are, in general, an expedition to the Western Front.
The northern line of the expedition is the Star-Swallowing Universe and the Infinite Universe.
These two should be mentioned together.
These two cosmic domains are the two cosmic domains closest to the southeast of the northern territory. When the great rift was formed, three star domains from each of them were torn into this side.
Originally, they were not included in the first phase of the Dark Side Expedition. Considering that they are very close to the Scarlet Scar, the Chaos corruption may be more serious, which makes it more difficult to defeat them.
But the battle of the Oath Star that year was a slap in the face to the Alliance.
If you don't care, these edited positions near the scarlet scars will really create a big crisis for you.
If you try to avoid difficulties, they will come to you.
After the idea of leaving those worlds alone and treating them as buffer zones and quarantine areas quickly failed, the Alliance changed its mindset and planned to actively bring those worlds under its control and manage the borders well.
The Alliance forces that fought in the Battle of the Alliance Star were already half-crippled at that time, but it didn't matter. In the subsequent reinforcements of the stronger Fourth Expedition Fleet, half of the troops were sent to the northern front, which enabled them to reach a strength similar to that of the previous Battle of the Alliance Star.
The Dark Side Expedition Northern Command was formally established, with General Li Kexi as the commander-in-chief of the northern line.
The Northern Front Command has two missions: to recapture the six star fields combined, namely the Infinite Star Field and the Devouring Star Field, which is estimated to total about three thousand worlds.
The other was to establish a broad and powerful defense line outside the northern borders of the alliance to eliminate any threats that might emerge from the Scarlet Scar.
Of these two tasks, the latter is more important.
So far, after twenty-seven years of expedition, the Northern Front has captured more than four hundred worlds.
Compared with the Western Front, this number is far less.
On the western front, they took about two days to capture a world. On the northern front, they took almost a month to capture a world.
Not even close.
But it was definitely not because the battle on the northern front was not good, but mainly because the difficulty was too great.
Many of the worlds encountered on the northern front were at the level of establishing safe zones within the safe zone policy of the western front. The number of worlds that needed to be dealt with by extermination orders was also far greater than that of the western front.
The safe zone policy that Gu Hang admired had actually been proposed a long time ago on the northern front, but it had never become mainstream.
The main reason lies in the different environments we face.
If the standards of the Western Front were followed, most of the worlds on the Northern Front would have to implement the safe zone policy, and a considerable number of them would not be able to hold on to the safe zone on their own even if they established it.
But on the northern front, because of the need to build a defense line, a considerable part of the world cannot be lost.
We have to tackle them one by one, and the efficiency will definitely not be as high as the Western Front.
Moreover, they also had to deal with enemies that popped out of the Scarlet Scar from time to time. Although it was not as exaggerated as the Battle of the Oath Star, where they had to sacrifice a planet's troops as bait to create a demon prince, but the small warbands and demon rift corps that popped out were all trouble.
There aren't many of them, usually not large groups. But small elite units are more troublesome. They cause a lot of damage, and it's very difficult to catch them. Even if you catch them, it's not that easy to destroy them. If you're not careful, they can easily break out, which is really troublesome to deal with.
This not only slowed down progress on the northern front, but also made the fighting much more intense, with casualties remaining high, which has always been the highest among the three fronts.
After fighting for about seven years, the alliance felt that it could no longer hold on. It was not that they could not hold on, but that they continued to support the North Line so much, and the speed of recovery was slow. In fact, even if they recovered it, the future development prospects were not very good...
This led the Alliance Central Committee to decide to adjust its strategy after sufficient discussion. In terms of the northern strategy, they no longer insisted on recovering more worlds. It would be enough to determine a northern defense line to protect the Alliance, with an isolation zone consisting of about 300 worlds.
Of course, three hundred worlds cannot completely cover the northern part of the alliance. In fact, if you want to achieve this goal, you need about six hundred worlds. But with three hundred, it can barely cover it. And, the most important thing is that even if there is a Chaos enemy coming and insists on attacking the alliance's homeland, it is not impossible, but the rear will be cut off at any time and surrounded.
If we can build a flat "Great Wall of Space" that connects these three hundred worlds and spans four star fields, we can basically ensure the safety of the northern line.
Then let the northern line focus on maintenance and significantly reduce the work of recovering the world.
Although it sounds a bit sorry for the outside world, there is actually nothing we can do about it.
After talking about the north line, the last one left is the south line.
The situation on the southern line is actually simpler.
Eleven years ago, when the war on the Western Front was progressing steadily without any major problems, Gu Hang ordered the mobilization of a part of the fleet from the Western Front, turning around and heading directly south from the Magre Space Domain; at the same time, a newly formed wave of expeditionary forces set out from the Eastern Space Domain and attacked westward.
The target is the Adan Universe.
This universe has eight star regions and 2,700 worlds. It is also a small to medium-sized universe. Up to now, 60% has been captured.
There was nothing worth writing about during the expedition. The Alliance, which had been on the expedition for ten years, was basically familiar with the operations on the southern front.
Recently, the southern line is even preparing to advance towards the Guangjin Universe, south of the Adan Universe.
All in all, the Dark Side Expedition has evolved from its inception to now, starting with three cautious fleets, to now having three headquarters, dozens of fronts, hundreds of squadrons, and countless battles being fought simultaneously every day.
In the past 27 years, the total number of worlds recovered by the Dark Side Expedition has approached the 7,000 mark, almost the same as the number of worlds in the Alliance. Including the seven star regions in the Eastern Universe, the total number of worlds controlled by the 'Imperial Dark Side Control Committee' should be able to exceed 17,000.
At this point, it can basically be declared that the Dark Side Expedition has officially entered the climax stage from the early stages.
This so-called "climax phase" is an adjective given by the alliance's propaganda department, intended to boost morale.
To some extent, it is not wrong. In the past 27 years, 7,000 worlds have been conquered, which is already a milestone achievement. In the future, the Alliance will further increase the strength of the expedition, or at least maintain the current scale. That means that the speed of the Dark Side Expedition to recover the world will become faster than in the past 27 years.
However, Gu Hang had no objection to the Alliance Propaganda Department creating a gimmick to inspire people and continue to promote the Dark Side Expedition. But he himself would not be overwhelmed by such propaganda.
On the contrary, he became more cautious.
If there are highs, there will naturally be lows.
When will the low point come?
have no idea.
But Gu Hang hopes to come as late as possible.
His goal was to bring the entire dark side of the empire under the control of the Control Committee. The entire dark side of the empire was almost half the size of the empire, a total of 25 universes. Currently, the alliance had full control over only three, and one was only half-controlled. The rest, there were still most of the targets.
If this is the climax stage, how long will it last?
Four hundred years? Five hundred years? Or more?
This is a decisive question: How long can Gu Hang keep the dark expedition going?
Now, only 27 years have passed, but Gu Hang can actually see some problems.
The pressure from within the alliance is quite great.
Fleets were built one after another and sent to the front line by the Queen of Glory. The army troops were constantly consumed on countless planets where wars were going on at the same time. Even for elite troops like the Space Marines, the total losses each year were quite staggering.
All of these need to be supplemented.
Gu Hang earned a lot of gift points, but he spent them quickly.
It is used to supplement military forces, to supplement space warriors, to expand the talent team to support the rapidly expanding scale of rule, to exchange for factory buildings and expand productivity...
Save it to draw technology?
It can't be saved at all.
Of course, if there is a chance to draw, that would be the best. In fact, Gu Hang quietly saved a little bit every time he made a big purchase of gift points and participated in the technology lottery.
But no key good stuff came out.
This gradually made Gu Hang feel that the system also had its limits. Just like in terms of his personal ability, the system stopped at level 9. That was only the strength of an S-level psychic. His subsequent upgrades were purely due to his own "eating" after he obtained the essence of the subspace, as well as the passive belief and trust of countless people after the alliance's ruling foundation was expanded.
The same is true in technology.
In the system's technology tree, the Apocalypse level is the upper limit. Gu Hangxin has extracted some, but it can no longer bring about qualitative changes.
What the alliance needs most right now is not technology.
More people, more resources, and most importantly, more time.
He didn't know whether he could catch up or not.
He always had a suffocating feeling that time was running out.
(End of this chapter)
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