Chapter 959: Chapter 517, Is it Adou?_2

The situation in the Menghe Star Domain had become tense in an instant.

Gu Hang had to guard against one thing:

Would the war come sooner than he had anticipated?

Was the Alliance’s entry into the Menghe Star Domain more provocative to Tie Nu Shi than he had originally expected?

Would the uncontrollable situation in the Menghe Star Domain escalate on both sides and abruptly accelerate the pace of war?

These situations were indeed not what Gu Hang wanted to see.

But he did not regret making the decision to enter Menghe at all.

Would you wait until the entire Menghe had thrown its lot in with Tie Nu Shi before fighting?

Would you wait for them to turn the Dragonhawk Star Domain, the Alliance’s stronghold, into a battlefield?

How would he alleviate the political pressure from the Imperial side?

Advancing early into the Menghe Star Domain was the only choice for the Alliance.

And, as it stands, the situation wasn’t as bad as it could possibly be.

Because Martini finally displayed some abilities that finally satisfied Gu Hang.

This Senior Judge had indeed been careless and unprepared at first, making wrong judgments, which led to him getting a proper beating in the Wanmeng Star Sector. His vessel, a black ship from the Flash Judgement Court equivalent to a fast cruiser, almost got destroyed in Wanmeng.

After escaping by the skin of his teeth, he contacted Gu Hang, swore oaths and pleaded for another chance.

Gu Hang saw no reason not to give it.

After all, the Wanmeng Star Sector was definitely going to be taken; he had already decided to reinforce from the homeland to Menghe, and the Alliance’s vanguard currently in the Menghe Star Domain had completed its assembly and was headed towards Wanmeng Star Sector.

Give this Martini another chance.

But at the same time, Gu Hang also made it clear to Perbov, the overall commander of the vanguard forces, that the Alliance’s troops were to cooperate with Martini, not to be in a superior-subordinate relationship. Perbov was to evaluate Martini’s action requests, engaging if they were reliable and rejecting them if not.

Perbov’s mission was to capture the entire Wanmeng Star Sector, regardless of whether it was cooperating with Martini or acting independently; in short, complete the final objective, and all would be well.

Later on, Martini ultimately demonstrated the capabilities befitting a Judge.

Not limited to combat and warfare.

If the problems in the Wanmeng Star Sector were resolved purely by force, Gu Hang could accept it, but he would be disappointed in Martini.

If it was just about fighting, Perbov was enough; what’s the use of Martini?

What Martini managed to do was, with the military support provided by Perbov behind him, to convince and advise several local forces on various planets to return to the Alliance; using small squads to infiltrate and assassinate several military leaders; to accurately judge that the opponents were not united, analyzing some forces that were not so resolute in their rebellion, persuading them with emotions and reason, and having them turn sides during the battle…

These actions were certainly valuable.

According to Perbov’s report, if only military actions were considered, the Alliance’s vanguard forces were somewhat insufficient in manpower. To take down the entire Wanmeng Star Sector, it was estimated to take upwards of two months. Moreover, there would be considerable losses, especially in the navy. The half of the Menghe Fleet was quite difficult to deal with. If there were major failures, it might not be resolved within two months, and might have to wait for reinforcements from the homeland.

With Martini’s maneuvers, the time was reduced from two months to forty days; simultaneously, the battle damage and costs were far less than initially expected. There was no need for additional reinforcements to solve the situation in the Wanmeng Star Sector, and the advance fleet even had the opportunity to move northward to meet the southward-moving Rebel Army.

To this extent, Martini had basically passed the test in Gu Hang’s eyes.

There were mistakes but also merits; overall, he might not be the top-notch, most outstanding, but shouldn’t be considered an utterly useless straw bag.

Gu Hang decided that he could support the Flash Judgement Court or the new court faction fostered by Martini later on.

Of course, that’s a topic for the future.

Currently in the Menghe Star Domain, what the Alliance needed to constantly pay attention to was the southward-moving Rebel Army.

Speaking of them, actually, it’s quite interesting.

This rebel army’s initial target was to head south from the Qunlu region, directly aiming for the core area of Menghe Star Domain, which is the Wanmeng Star Sector.

The journey was originally about a month and a half.

In fact, they could have barely made it in time to rescue the rebels of Wanmeng.

However, they encountered some ‘troubles’ along the way.

This is why Zhai Guangshan and others didn’t immediately stage a rebellion, and the current rebellion in the Wanmeng Star Sector was more passive than proactive.

They weren’t sufficiently prepared.

The Northern Meng River was supposed to be a more heavily infiltrated area, but even there, quite a few places were loyal to the Empire.

During the rebellion’s southward push, there were indeed some who defected at the first sign of trouble, but there were also these Imperial Loyalists who directly launched resistance.

Even though this rebel army was in a hurry to rescue others, they ignored the conditions on the ground along the way. However, some merchant fleets, or Star Region Level ships, harassed them.

They were all small ships, junky ships, lacking in quality, and even in quantity.

Nonetheless, these pesky harassments did slow them down to some extent.

Seeing that the reinforcements were not arriving, many in the Meng River rebel forces who could have held out longer began to waver even more, leading to more defections at the critical moment.

When Martini and Perbov joined forces to pacify the Wanmeng Star Sector, the rebel army was still at least twenty days from Wanmeng Star.

Upon learning that Wanmeng Star was beyond help, they too halted their progress, no longer heading to Wanmeng Star. Instead, they divided their forces and expanded their controlled territory.

From the looks of it, Gu Hang assessed that the rebel army’s second phase mission wasn’t to wage war with the Alliance but to seize territory in the Menghe Star Domain.

It was a movement to prepare for future wars.

They clearly had a similar idea to the Alliance: no one wanted to let a fierce war erupt in their own backyard. Naturally, they would also try to bring the flames of war into Menghe, a Star Domain that nominally still belonged to the Empire.

This rebel army and the Alliance’s advance troops were of similar size, both sides, like starting a race, began to claim their territory all over the Menghe Star Domain.

In about two months, both sides had nearly finished dividing Menghe Star Domain.

The Alliance occupied about 80% of the region, which is the central and southern parts of Meng River. Additionally, the two main jewels of the Menghe Star Domain, Gelangya Star with its precious shipbuilding industry, and Wanmeng Star, the capital of the Star Domain, were both in the Alliance’s hands.

The Princess’s Rebel Army occupied 20% of the region, concentrated in the northern part of the Star Domain.

Across the border region, both sides entered a military standoff.

There were minor military skirmishes, but not intense, mostly limited to being discovered by the opposite side during military reconnaissance missions, followed by small patrol ships chasing and fighting each other for a while; or discreetly using small ships like Voyagers to smuggle across, hiding behind planets to deploy special forces on planets controlled by the opposition.

But a large-scale war had not been initiated by both parties.

Instead, both sides were more diligently focused on constructing a large number of defensive facilities along the border area.

Which means the fortification and militarization of planets.

One orbital cannon after another was erected, one armed space station after another was manufactured on the ground, and then launched into space…

The current minor skirmishes seemed more like the calm before the storm.

Once both sides have accumulated enough strength, the scale of war that will erupt here may be unprecedented.

And at this time, Gu Hang, along with the people from the Gelangya Ship Industry Group, returned to the Tianma Star Sector.

These shipbuilding group people were left to the Alliance’s corresponding personnel to entertain, and Gu Hang dived into his own work.