Chapter 977: Chapter 527, Political Pressure_2

However, before these reinforcements arrived, even with Lord of the Phoenix Su Lie himself present, the battlefield situation inevitably continued to deteriorate.

During that time, the Alliance was under the greatest political pressure.

The Empire’s demands for the Alliance to take the initiative in attacking grew unprecedentedly loud, to the point where even Galaraldo felt overwhelmed. According to him, there was already a deputy minister below him who had proposed an impeachment against him.

Although he suppressed this proposal and removed the deputy minister who stood out, this was a kind of wind direction– even a warning from certain political factions in the Central Empire, making it difficult for him to continue ‘protecting’ the Alliance.

Besides the pressure from the Central Empire and Space Domain Government to deploy troops, there was additional pressure from the battle groups.

The Phoenix Legion issued a call to various Phoenix Subgroups, and naturally, one of these calls reached the Phoenix Battle Group within the Alliance.

It was a call, not a strong command.

However, in the message, Lord of the Phoenix Su Lie was actually quite puzzled.

During the Grand Rhododendron Rebellion, the Phoenix Battle Group was an ‘affected party.’ Among the three battle groups convicted, only one Phoenix survived.

All three groups were Phoenix Subgroups. Consequently, after the Grand Rhododendron Rebellion, the relationship between the Phoenix lineage and Iron Armor became very hostile. Even though the Central Empire’s decision at that time was final, and Su Lie made a strong objection back then, the outcome could not be changed.

Moreover… to be honest, the influence of the Phoenix Legion and its subgroups isn’t significant.

While it certainly has a large scale– after all, it’s an original battle group with millennia of history– the ‘fertility’ of the Phoenix Legion is not impressive.

Interstellar warriors throughout their lives have two Genetic Seeds, and every battle group is like this; in this respect, there is no difference. However, the adaptability and characteristics of each group’s Genetic Seeds vary significantly.

For example, the Genetic Seeds of the Infinite Corps have exemplary adaptability. During the era of the Grand Army, the Infinite Legion was the largest interstellar soldier corps of that time; naturally, when this legion was divided into battle groups, the most were split from the Infinite Legion; subsequently, over millennia, due to the large number of people, good adaptability, and high success rate of Genetic Seed implantation, the number of Infinite Warriors increased further, which led to more of their Genetic Seeds… This formed a positive cycle.

Today, the number of battle groups originating from the Infinite lineage is the largest in the entire universe.

Secondly, the descendants of the Punisher Legion and the Golden Knight Legion also have very good adaptability.

Strength in numbers is an eternal truth.

The Genetic Seeds of the Phoenix Legion are not among the least adaptable, but at best, they can be considered below average.

The descendants of the Phoenix pursue perfection, are polite and possess very high-level swordsmanship capabilities. Whether in combat skills or tactical strategies, they can reach an extent that is excessively ornate.

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Sometimes, they can achieve astonishing victories that leave others speechless, but they can also drag down efficiency due to overly complex strategies and techniques.

In short, there are not enough descendants of the Phoenix, and thus their influence is relatively insufficient.

If it had been some larger battle groups, perhaps the events back then would have caused a bigger stir.

The Phoenix and its series of subgroups hold a grudge for not being able to resolve matters back then.

If not, with an opportunity to counter Iron Armor now, Su Lie wouldn’t have responded so quickly or led the team personally.

As victims and involved parties from back then, shouldn’t the Phoenix Battle Group be more indignant and direct?

Su Lie was really curious and disappointed about why the Phoenix remained silent.

Faced with queries from the parent group, Commander Matins was quite agitated.

Even the Phoenix Legion lineage harbors a deep grudge over the Rhododendron incident, so how can the Phoenix Battle Group that nearly faced extinction not hate them?

Hate them to the teeth!

If Matins could make decisions, he would have joined the Iron Armor War immediately.

However, he must consider Gu Hang’s opinion.

He hasn’t forgotten that the current Phoenix Battle Group is part of the Alliance. Their actions must proceed within the framework of the entire Alliance.

Yet the pressure from the parent group, along with battle group leaders, Chaplains, and other figures from several Phoenix Subgroups, were also sending messages to him, inquiring about this matter. Our entire Phoenix family is fighting side by side to avenge the grievances you suffered a century ago, so why is the affected party still holding back?

Matins really felt sorry.

On the Western Line, the North Line battlefield was in great turmoil, and Su Lie contacted Matins once again, hoping the Phoenix could quickly move north to participate in the war.

He even spoke to Gu Hang, with the identity of the Western Line War Zone’s top commander.

Gu Hang himself had the position of the Southern Front War Zone top commander.

Though nothing was happening on the Southern Front.

Gu Hang managed to pass Su Lie off, but dealing with his own people was not as easy.

While Matins followed the overall strategy of the Alliance, he also petitioned Gu Hang multiple times to fight.

With pressure from multiple levels and angles, both internally and externally, Gu Hang found it necessary to act within the premise of maintaining strategic stability.

The Alliance’s vanguard was reinforced.

At the same time, Gu Hang announced that the Southern War Zone would initiate an offensive against the Iron Armor Battle Group.

General Perbov, as the commander of the vanguard legion, led the entire army to begin the attack.

However… this offensive, driven by pressure, wasn’t particularly fierce.

Despite increased troop deployment by the Alliance, it still hadn’t reached the scale of an independent war zone.

The Iron Armor Battle Group stationed on the Southern Line had very few troops to guard against the Alliance. They were fully focused on the North Line, thus difficult to muster particularly large forces on the Southern Line.

In such a situation, even the less aggressive attack by the Alliance achieved some results.

The war persisted for two years, with the battlefield mostly remaining in the Menghe Star Domain.

Though the battles were like ‘scattered raindrops,’ in terms of propaganda, the Alliance succeeded in making the ‘thunder sound loud.’

Each planet’s campaign may not have been significant in scale, but in reports submitted to the higher-ups in the Alliance, they were depicted as apocalyptic wars fought fiercely.

The Phoenix Battle Group, along with the Sainte-Lys Nun Association allied with the Alliance, were all put into front line combat– or at least, that was what the Alliance claimed to outsiders.

Of course, this was also true.

Yet, the Phoenix only deployed two companies; the Sainte-Lys Sisters only participated in a size of about five to six hundred.

At first, this seemingly lukewarm but heavily hyped situation did fool some, reducing the political pressure on the Alliance.

But soon, this facade was uncovered.

Some parties began saying that the Alliance hadn’t exerted its full strength.

No special agencies were needed– merely observing that the Alliance’s flagship, the ‘Firebath Nova,’ was never deployed to the front lines revealed whether the Alliance was serious.

Moreover, no matter how fiercely you exaggerate, the frontline won’t deceive anyone.

The Alliance’s progress on the Southern Line was as slow as a snail.

If the Iron Anguish had heavily fortified the south, then slow advancements would be understandable, but it was not the case.

The slightly reduced political pressure quickly began to resurge.