Chapter 128

  Gustav von Shuttekow stepped into the commandant's cabin on the bridge of his flagship, where his old friend and superior Rudolf von Favril was waiting. This small fleet of 1,100 ships, consisting of 300 cruisers, more than 700 destroyers and 100 battleships, was just a tiny fraction of the Imperial Army, which had over 20,000 troops.

  Shute saw General Fawneil enthusiastically demonstrating various scenes on the 3D map in front of him, and walked over to take a look. It was a demonstration of the movement and attack and defense of some fleets. "I thought you were watching a thrilling 3D porn movie, General."

  "Do I have such a lowly and limitless existence? Gustav, you'd better go wash your dirty mind! By the way, come take a look. This is Major Mjolnir's battle report and record from these past few days, isn't it interesting?"

  "Can this be obtained as well? Hmm... Indeed, with your identity, you can obtain the fleet battle reports and records. Alright, let's take a look at how good the blonde kid's tactical level is."

  An hour later, "Major Müller is indeed a good fighter, and it's not true that he was promoted because of his connections." said Hauptmann Schütte.

  "Yes, the central breakthrough and flanking attack were both executed perfectly. Those fools in the salon really thought that Kinmu rose through the ranks thanks to women? Ha! However, this little guy is also quite interesting, you see, he likes grand performances and surprise attacks in his command, whether it's moving or attacking, all with a magnificent and elegant effect. Although it wasn't intentional, it inadvertently reveals General Mj?llnir's fondness for taking risks." said Fafnir.

  "I wish to hear good news."

  "The strategic and grand tactical level of Admiral Müjdat is unknown. However, at the middle to small scale fleet tactics, he likes to use adventurous and radical tactics, striving for a crushing blow with great results. If this tactic encounters an allied commander who only knows how to play the most rigid fleet tactics or has better tactics than him, he will be in trouble. But... is there such a person among the allies? Anyway, playing like this, the golden hair (Müjdat) will eventually suffer..."

  "Enemy fleet detected 1.5 light seconds out! Bearing X-9, Y11, Z8! Estimated number is approximately 500! Type identified as Alliance destroyers!" The tactical officer on the bridge reported loudly.

  The current Fafnir fleet is holding a fairly important grid point, where it continuously transmits the main force movement of the alliance fleet in front to the Imperial Military Command, and at the same time ambushes many passing alliance vanguard fleets, accumulating battle results equivalent to its own number while suffering minimal losses - under Fafnir's limited attack target count, it would truly be a heaven-defying Alliance commander to inflict significant casualties on him...

  "Huh? Has the commander of the opposing alliance fleet gone mad? His numbers are only half of mine, yet he's charging in so directly?"

  "Charge! Colonel Pan, 31 years old, the new generation of the alliance considered to be 'Ulanfu's successor' brave general. "The enemy in front is a coward! Directly charge their main position!"

  The Fauni fleet has shown a clear "bullying the weak and fearing the strong" style in the battles of the past few days, letting go of the alliance fleets that were only half their size, and adopting defensive strategies against alliance fleets that were only one-third their size. Only when the alliance fleet was less than a quarter of their size would they pounce on them fiercely. Therefore, most people in the alliance believe that "the commander of the Imperial Fleet here is timid and cowardly, and it is enough to disperse or annihilate them with an equivalent fleet!"

  As for a certain black-haired "rice-eating" Colonel Staff Officer's proposal that "That might be a calm and composed enemy", this proposal was simply thrown into the trash can.

  The last attacker to be chosen was the bravest and most skilled commander in close combat, closest to this grid point. Colonel Pan's fleet, although with only 500 destroyers as its main force, was believed by all the Allied forces that "Colonel Pan should be able to heavily damage this Imperial Fleet, at least drive them out."

  The allied fleet charged in a reverse triangular formation, which could make good use of firepower and have reserves to follow up. Under the encouragement of the brave commander, they launched a high-speed attack without any disorder.

  "General Fawneil sat in the commander's chair, wagging his finger and issuing orders: "The flagship and its affiliated warship squadron move to the right wing, all cruisers move to the left wing, and destroyers deploy in the middle! The three squadrons form a line and prepare for defensive combat! The flagship and warship squadron, cruiser squadron take advantage of their range advantage and open fire after the enemy enters the maximum range! Disrupt their formation!"

  Chief of Staff Schuette hastily relayed the commander's orders and began to work out the next step in the operation with other staff officers.

  The Imperial fleet quickly reformed, and the beam lances also fired at the Allied fleet. Taking advantage of their range superiority, the Imperial forces launched round after round of salvoes, successfully disrupting the Allied fleet's neat attack formation, but due to the range issue, they did not cause much damage to the Allied fleet.

  On the flagship "Duisburg", General Fafnir sat paralyzed in the commander's sofa, with a holographic display of both sides' situation in front of him. The Allied forces hadn't slowed down much, they began to gather together to counter the Empire's artillery fire that utilized its range advantage, using the overlapping defensive fields to increase their own defense power. However, as the distance drew closer, casualties among the Allied forces gradually started to appear.

  Four hours after the start of the standard time, the Allied forces entered their range and began to heavily bombard the Imperial Army with their own artillery fire. At this point, the Allied forces had lost about fifty destroyers, or one-tenth of their fleet, but casualties were not yet at a level that would hinder their ability to launch an assault. However, the Imperial Army's deployment was already complete, and resupply and reorganization work had been carried out in the four hours it took for the Allies to arrive, with most soldiers and officers even able to get some rest, making this the perfect moment for physical and mental recovery.

  The two assault groups of the Allied fleet, each with 200 destroyers, fired a broadside that hit about 100 battleships and 300 cruisers on either wing of the Empire's forces, causing around 10 battleships and 30 cruisers to drop out of line. However, by this time even the most obtuse commander could see that defeat for the Allies was inevitable.

  "What the...!! How could the Imperial Army not have collapsed?! No way! We must retreat!" Colonel Pan, who had been cursing the staff officers in his belly for their underestimation of the enemy commander, "That's a cowardly and timid Imperial nobleman!" He would soon pay the price for his own and the Allied Command's underestimation.

  At this moment, he still had the opportunity to abandon part of his vanguard and advance with his main force, because the Empire's 700 destroyers did not fire ahead, and now he was fighting against warships and cruiser squadrons, while the Allied forces prepared for him Support troops are still 1 light-second behind him - in other words, he launched a preemptive attack on the Empire.

  Just as Bosei was still undecided, the Imperial Navy's destroyer squadron suddenly began a high-speed dash.

  "Alright, this farce has gone on long enough. Order the destroyer to give them the final blow! Then we'll retreat too, there are still thousands of Allied ships following behind us." Colonel Fafnir gave his last order, "Huh, I'm going back to sleep. Schuttkampf, after one round of shooting, regardless of the situation, withdraw from the battlefield and retreat, it's not necessary to stay here any longer."

  The Imperial destroyers' orbital cannons fired a salvo, and the Imperial battleships and cruisers also opened fire with a full broadside. The Alliance forces immediately fell into a desperate situation, with over 350 ships sunk in one blow, and Admiral Baozhu and his flagship were reduced to cosmic dust. The remaining ships turned tail and fled in disarray, completely disregarding the fact that they were exposing their weak rear ends to the Imperial forces. However, the Empire did not launch a second round of fire, but instead retreated directly and left the battlefield. An hour later, an Alliance force of over 3,000 ships, which had rushed to the scene at top speed, could only reluctantly accept the remaining Alliance forces, but also successfully occupied this space domain.

  Without mentioning the Allied Forces' pursuit of responsibility for this loss, General Fawkes received a report a day after leaving the airspace, "The blond kid was ambushed... Fortunately, he managed to escape. But the other side really attaches great importance to him, and actually mobilized tens of thousands of ships to attack him."

  "Huh? Is there really that many? Let me take a look too."

  On November 9th, Reinhardt was nearly surrounded by the Allied forces.

  At 7:45, one corner of the formation attacking the Allied fleet, with firepower overwhelming the enemy, gradually retreated, and then struck again at the stretched-out enemy, advancing from the left and right sides of the protruding enemy, unfolding the formation in the rear, and annihilating it with artillery fire from behind. In reality, it was a thousand times more difficult than planned, but Reinhard led the enemy fleet to move like playing the piano keys, unfolding the battle. At the moment when Reinhard artistically completed the deployment of the back, new enemies came from below, above, and behind in three directions.

  Reinhardt's tactics were predicted by the enemy - to be precise, Colonel Yang Weili - as a result of psychological analysis. First, it was confirmed that Reinhardt (of course, without knowing his name) had unfolded various tactical patterns, and then it was assumed that they were based on a kind of arrogant playfulness. After that, it was found out that the tactics he had been using so far included side attacks, reverse advances, and rear deployments. Then, by making a distribution map of Reinhardt's attack points, his action pattern was analyzed. Finally, a force configuration diagram with a total of 10,000 ships was marked, and then Yang entrusted the implementation of the battle to General Greenhill. In this day's battle, Reinhardt managed to break through one corner of the encirclement network in distress, but suffered damage of over 800 ships, which was a considerable lesson for him compared to his total damage of only 30 ships so far.

  As a result, Reinhardt was able to extricate himself from the predicament due to the Allies' reluctance to commit sufficient forces and complete the encirclement. "It would be enough just to clip the wings of that somewhat too clever enemy commander. Don't get bogged down in details and forget about the big goal of Iserlohn." This was the view of the Allied High Command, which was entirely correct - at the time.

  "What's with the Golden Fur report? Are there really that many warships surrounding him? He couldn't have made a mistake out of fear, could he?" said Commander Schenk.

  "The amount should be roughly the same, I said. Gustav, you've got a problem with your mind! You can't be... I need to stay away from you! You've become a dead base!"

  "Damn it! Lieutenant Rudolf von Fafnir! I'm not a queer!" Schuttk?mpfer's face turned bright red as he bellowed. The rest of the bridge crew was already used to this...

  December 1st, the Free Planets Alliance Army finally deployed its entire army in front of Iserlohn Fortress.

  That was at a distance of 6.4 light-seconds beyond the range of Thor's Hammer.

  "The number of ships is over 30,000." Iselrern's tactical computer calculated. That was fewer than the fifth attack two years ago - when there were more than 50,000 light spots scattered across the main holographic screen of Iselrern Fortress Central Command. But 30,000 was also a considerable number for an army, and that kind of oppressive feeling was not uncommon.

  The Imperial fleet, numbering twenty thousand ships, emerged from the fortress and began a relentless barrage of main cannon fire, opening the curtain on a fiery exchange. Tens of thousands of beams of light pierced through space, explosions flashing across the screens in rhythmic pulses. The released energy currents shook the vessels violently. Fierce battles unfolded beyond the range of the fortress's main cannons.

  During this time, the "Mjolnir" gradually filled with a massive amount of energy. Once it let out its silent roar, all clever tactics and fleet operations would be reduced to tiny units of FaE, broken down into the smallest elements that make up the universe.

  "Waltz on D-line."

  This is the lesson that the Allied fleet learned through blood, the essence of fleet movement. Accurately determining the range limit of the main cannon "Mjolnir" of the Iselren fortress, quickly entering and exiting on those lines to lure the enemy out. If there is only a moment's mistake in time, the entire fleet will be shattered under the flash of "Mjolnir". The soft aspect of perfectly controlling this movement is quite high-level, and the Allied forces are superior to the Empire in this regard.

  On the other hand, for the Empire, this was a desperate situation. The fleet broke through to the "D line" and continued to exchange fire, trying to lure the enemy into range. However, at this time, they did not want to be hit by the fortress's main cannon themselves, so they had to be prepared to scatter in all directions at any moment. The virtual and real responses of advance and retreat continued for two hours, and it seemed that they were stuck in a stalemate.

  Commodore Farenheit's fleet of over a thousand small ships is now anchored in the anchorage of the Iscandar fortress, and he is watching the endless void outside with his chief of staff, Major General Shuttekauen, through thick transparent armor. The battles between the Alliance and the Empire are unfolding before their eyes, countless points of light flashing and disappearing in the darkness, each point representing the disappearance of hundreds of lives.

  "It's quite a delightful pastime to watch others risk their lives from a safe distance, don't you think, Gustave?"

  "Yes, right. Karl opened his mouth again to bet on who won and the number of casualties on both sides."

  "He's a hopeless gambler. I wonder if I should beat him up and lock him away? Forget it, let him do what he wants, as long as he doesn't mess up during the ground battle."

  Reinhard von Müsel, the eighteen-year-old young man with a slender white finger shaped according to the golden ratio, explained the intention of the Allied Forces to his red-haired friend who was in charge of deputy officer and former staff officer after making a sound.

  "My fleet consists of only 2,200 ships. This is very small in terms of tactics, but it has extremely great strategic significance."

  Gillfieth gazed at the blond young man who was both his superior and friend. Understanding his meaning, Reinhardt smiled again.

  "I didn't say that was wrong, Gilfieth. At the tactical level, it's just 2,200 ships, but those 2,200 ships will save Iselrune."

  Reinhardt's words had never been without foundation. Gillellyes believed this would not be the first exception, and at Reinhardt's direction, contacted Marshal Mikelberte to request clearance for a strike.

  During this time, the Allied forces continued to dance in perfect control on the line of the "Thunder God's Hammer" range limit, responding to the Imperial Army with firepower. In this regard, the tactical command ability of Marshal Lobos and General Greenhill was by no means inferior.

  At this time, a swarm of multiple missiles flew in from the blind spot of "Mjolnir". Just after the warning shouts of the fortress's control personnel, the light of the hit made Iselrun's surface shine.

  Ishierlun fortress also fired a photon barrage to welcome them. The white explosion light, turned into a devil's necklace shining brightly. Illuminated the vision of both armies, solid missiles and gasified missiles filled the nearby space of the fortress, non-productive energy ripples consumed, turned into whirlwinds racing on the surface of the fortress, blowing away gun emplacements and turrets.

  In the face of Iscandar's massive fort, even a single cell couldn't be called a large fleet of guided missile boats. They passed through the gaps in the cannon battle and launched concentrated attacks on various parts of the fort. The staff of the Allied Forces boasted that the key to their tactics was "using the main force as bait" at this point. Concentrating thousands of shells, they carried out continuous explosions. It seemed that the thorough concentration of firepower aimed at creating an anthill on the giant's body had been effective.

  The fleet of the Allied Forces approaching the fortress was suddenly dug out with an unnatural cave, and it can be said that the continuous explosion light blew up the warship together with the missile, creating a void sphere in the empty space.

  That was Reinhardt's lateral attack, scattering the missile boats with weaker defenses in a series of fireballs and light balls, then extending the firing line to snipe at the Allied main force from above.

  To avoid this attack, the Allied forces had to turn back in the direction of two o'clock, but that was within range of "Thor's Hammer".

  The Allied Forces fell into Reinhard's trap. As he had explicitly stated to Gillfi, with only 2,200 troops, he dominated the entire battlefield and turned the tables on the Allied Forces' tactics, proving Reinhard's exceptional tactical prowess.

  At this time, the Allied army could not take advantage of its numerical superiority. If it expanded its formation, it would be crushed by the "Thunder God's Hammer", and there was no other way but to adopt an extremely long and narrow spindle-shaped formation with its tip advancing towards Leinhart. This was the only way for the Allied army to survive, and Leinhart did not intend to let them succeed.

  Reinhard and the Allied Forces clashed in a fierce battle, with swords clashing at their tips. Originally, with a force ratio of about 15 to 1, it was supposed to be an impossible fight, but as long as they weren't surrounded, there was nothing to fear for Reinhard. Just like a knight standing on a narrow bridge, cutting down enemies coming from the front, he used concentrated firepower and flexible advances and retreats to stop the enemy.

  "It seems that the Golden Hair's tactical concept is not bad, are all the allied forces composed of idiots? Why bother fighting with the Golden Hair on this line, can't you just retreat out of range? Are you going to pursue and attack, Mjolnir? At such a close distance, even if you entangle with him and cover the missile boat's continued attack from below, I wonder what you plan to do, Mjolnir? Call down a Thunder God's Hammer for mutual destruction?" General Fafnir muttered.

  The Imperial Navy's fleets, which had been allowing Reinhard to fight alone for merit since the Battle of Amritsar, arrived from the Iserlohn Corridor. Regardless of the motivations behind their desire for military achievements, this was tactically appropriate, as the Allied fleet's lines had stretched out in a long, thin line, making it easy and effective to strike at its flanks.

  "Cut them off like cutting through butter with a thick-bladed knife, and then strike each one down separately!"

  The command of General Mikobelga, not bound by details, took advantage of the momentum of the entire army to operate the battlefield, which cannot be said to be wrong. The Empire's theory is to hold on to that, but for the Allied Forces, it is not possible to easily cut through with a sharp blade. Chief of Staff Grenshill accepted Colonel Yang Weili's suggestion and made a decisive decision to commit all reserve forces. The Imperial Army launched an attack, which means they cannot use the "Thunder God's Hammer". As long as this situation holds true, we can no longer stand by and watch the defeat of our friendly forces. If the Allied Forces have sufficient reserves and commit them at this time, a large-scale melee will occur within the range of the "Thunder God's Hammer", rendering Iselren's proud fortress main cannon useless. This will create a situation similar to the fifth battle of Iselren, where it is difficult to suddenly wrap up the battle. The chaotic state does not show any signs of converging towards an end. Time, material, and lives are constantly being consumed, creating a colorful and disorderly kaleidoscope effect that spreads throughout the entire battlefield. In the midst of mass-producing tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies, the battle drama starring the Allied Forces' "Rose Knights" is indeed quite magnificent and extraordinary.

  Originally, the "Thorn Knights" should not have appeared much in fleet battles. In the sixth Iselhorn campaign, this radical exile group was constantly launching surprise attacks with specialized assault landing ships, as if to declare a break with common sense, and reliving the Western world's "Space Pirate Century". Because every time they occupied an enemy ship, they used its communication device to call their former captain.

  "Come out, Luineburke! The special seat on the express train to hell has been prepared for you. Or have you escaped already?"

  To the "Wild Rose" unit's approach, some people comforted them by saying "This war is not your private fight", but the unit commander Walter von Schoenborn Colonel simply denied this suggestion.

  "This is a private war, otherwise it would be really unbearable."

  The squadron commander's sharp tongue was supplemented by his executive officer, Major Casper Lingle.

  "We haven't sunk to the point of killing people in official business!"

  After the two officers' dangerous remarks, Captain Broomhilde deliberately pulled the trigger of his hand-held grenade launcher, causing the friendly forces of the Lian Shi faction to disperse.

  Thus, "Thistle Knights" spread out across the battlefield, scattering invitation letters written in blood to individuals at Luinburk.

  On December 1, the commander of the "Rose Knight" squadron led his subordinates to attack. Captain Bu saw the Imperial fleet hiding behind in a circular formation - it was General Favniel's small fleet. He didn't rush to attack the Allied fleet like his peers, but instead stayed there to watch the show at close range. His flagship stood out at the top of the formation, exchanging fire with nearby Allied warships. "Commander! The enemy's high-speed landing ship is approaching rapidly! Do you want to intercept?" Favniel looked at the enemy ship with the Rose Knight logo on its hull, surrounded by high-speed destroyers that broke through the chaos of the battlefield and rushed towards his flagship. "No need! Pay attention to the firepower of their warships, I'll go loosen my bones." He said as he left the bridge.

  With a crash, one of the Rose Knights' reinforced assault boats docked with the warship "Duisburg" under cover of its companions.

  "Come out, come out, Luineburke! Come out and I'll send you straight to Western Heaven. The hellish witches are all waiting for you, handsome guy dyed in blood!" As they sang this lowly and uninteresting ditty, the bow of the assault boat opened up, and a large group of lean soldiers wearing armor suits charged into the warship's passageway.

  "Jeff particle density moderate! Can't use shooting weapons! Prepare for close combat!" The frontmost thorny knight soldier shouted while looking at the instrument.

  The imperial warriors in front also stood up one after another, facing each other across the corridor. On the imperial side, several soldiers blocked a figure wearing high-ranking officer armor behind them, who had a carbon crystal knife and carbon crystal heavy sword on his body, but did not hold an axe in his hand, with both hands clasped together looking at the Alliance soldiers opposite him.

  "It's an Imperial General! Kill him!" Colonel Prior made a gesture to move forward, "Colonel! Let me take care of this!" Lieutenant Diken shouted, raising his battle-axe and charging forward with his men. Lieutenant Diken did not meet General Luneville on the battlefield in Valfort, so he did not die like in the original story; now he led the charge into the Imperial Army.

  The Imperial soldiers who came to meet him were completely unable to withstand the fierce lieutenant, and soon they retreated one after another, exposing the Imperial general.

  "Your name! The Imperial General!" Colonel Shikibu said over the phone.

  "Dead men don't think that much! I am Rudolf von Favoniel!" After saying this, Favoniel drew his sword and began to fight. With just one slash, the heavy sword of carbon crystal beheaded three Rose Knights at once, while the long knife in his other hand picked up another soldier on its tip, lifting his body weighing over a hundred kilograms along with his armor as if it had no weight at all.

  "A monster?" Seeing this scene, Xian Ke's expression became serious, he jumped forward in one step, raised his battle axe and swung it horizontally.

  Powerful hands wielding a heavy sword with one hand easily deflected the attack, while a counterattack formed a semicircular slash towards Sakaki. Sakaki's body suddenly secreted a large amount of adrenaline, "This power! This speed! This is not something humans can do!" He quickly abandoned his battle-axe and fell back to avoid the attack. After Favniel's strike missed, his left hand swung again, easily cutting down two soldiers who rushed up to rescue him, while the sword light cut through the metal corridor inside the warship like butter. All the Rose Knights took a step back at the same time, facing an inhuman warrior they were temporarily at a loss for what to do. Favniel didn't wait, he kicked the corpses on the ground high-speed towards the opposing Allied soldiers, who dodged and clearly saw that the thick armor was actually kicked open. "What is this thing? How can it be so strong! We're going to die!"

  "Fall back!" Colonel Sch?nbrunn, who had narrowly escaped, ordered the Rose Knights to retreat while covering each other. Fafnir leapt into the crowd with a tiger-like jump, and his arc of light flashed out, cutting down six soldiers along with their weapons and armor. Lieutenant Dicken desperately tried to block Fafnir's path to prevent him from killing his own subordinates, but was easily split in two with a vertical slash. The Imperial soldiers were also stunned, having never seen such power before. The Alliance soldiers fled in desperation, with the last of them being killed one after another until someone managed to fire a shot. A massive explosion interrupted the pursuit, and Sch?nbrunn and his subordinates finally returned to their assault boat, their hands and teeth still trembling uncontrollably... In just three short minutes, they had lost dozens of subordinates and Lieutenant Dicken, one of the Four Quartets.

  Fortunately, shortly after exiting, they encountered their target - Lieutenant General Lunev's assault boat.

  "Is Luneville dead?" Twenty-four hours later, General Fafnir received the news. "He's so unlucky? He was actually killed by a stray bullet during the battle?"

  The Knights of the Thistle finally avenged themselves, but an even greater shadow loomed over their heads. Everyone who participated in the battle remained tight-lipped about the monster, so few people knew about General Fafnir's power.

  The sixth battle of Iselorn is nearing its end, but the flames of war are still raging fiercely. On December 6th, after countless hardships, the Allied Forces reorganized more than half of their troops on the periphery of the chaotic battlefield, forming a clever pincer movement.

  What made this thing a success was the achievement of Colonel Yang Weili, the combat staff officer. A small number of people whispered behind his back: In a corner of his brain, there is a small magic lamp, and only when the magic god in the lamp occasionally wakes up from sleep, will he come up with a battle plan that makes others amazed. Of course, this demon seems to be sleeping for 350 days a year, but now it seems to have woken up and become active.

  However, this was also due to the adoption of his plan by General Greenhill, the Chief of Staff. According to the instructions of the Chief of Staff, the Allied forces constructed a firing line on the right side of the Ischeron fortress - from the entrance of the corridor on this side, it is the right side, and through three concentrated artillery fires, they forced a certain number of Imperial troops into the "Thunder God's Hammer" front zone. Then, a wave-like attack from the left flank caused significant damage to the Empire, and within two hours, the Imperial army suffered more losses than in the previous 24 hours.

  But under Reinhardt's activity and two shots of Mjolnir, the alliance finally retreated.

  December 10th, 17:04, the sixth battle of the Iselorn fortress ended with a comprehensive retreat of the Free Planets Alliance.

  The Allied forces suffered 754,000 dead and the Imperial forces 368,000. The Allies failed to achieve their strategic goal of capturing Isère, but still managed to inflict more casualties on the enemy than they suffered themselves. All that was left was a tactical satisfaction of "being evenly matched before the Thunder God's hammer fell", in exchange for the loss of as many lives as the population of an entire city.

  On December 15, the Ministry of Military Affairs confirmed the posthumous promotion of Lieutenant General Leuneburg to full general, while Reinhard von Mühlmann was promoted to lieutenant general for his merits, and Rudolf von Favini was also promoted to major general due to previous battles. Chief of Staff Schuttekalbe was also promoted to colonel, but as before, the fleet's supplies were still lagging behind.

  On January 20, the Fawkes' fleet was replenished with remnants of defeated squadrons to a total of three thousand due to his loud protests. The replenishment ships were mostly new ones from the factories. At the same time, an order was issued: "Fawkes' squadron, stationed in the Aigenholtz star domain. Severely strike at the increasingly rampant smuggling and piracy activities in this star domain."

  "It's said to be a proposal from General Grimmelshausen himself." Colonel Fafnir sighed.

  "What a good man!" Colonel Scherbachov said with a smile, and then both of them burst out laughing.