Chapter 252: Chapter 251: A Failed Strategy
In the vastness of space, Li Qingsong’s fleet decelerated as it rapidly approached Planet Two.
He could clearly see that in the interim, the garrison fleets of Planet One, Planet Two, and Planet Three had dutifully remained in orbit around their respective planets, showing no sign of launching an offensive.
This made Li Qingsong sigh softly.
If the Harville Civilization Fleet had taken the initiative to attack, meeting him in open space far from the planets for an engagement, perhaps his own weaknesses could have been somewhat mitigated.
After all, once they left their planet, the Harville Civilization Fleet’s supply lines would inevitably be weakened. At the same time, he might have had a chance to raid their supply points and seize some of their resources to alleviate his own dire supply shortage.
This was also one of the reasons for Li Qingsong’s incessant taunts.
But now, it seemed this strategy had failed.
‘It seems the leadership of the Harville Civilization hasn’t let anger cloud their judgment. Instead, they’ve remained calm and maintained control over their civilization…’
Since that was the case, there was no other way. He would have to force a head-on battle.
‘I don’t know why you all suddenly changed your attitude toward me, developing this sudden malice and forcing my hand into this battle.
But that’s alright. Once I win, I’ll find out why…’
Li Qingsong quickly adjusted his fleet’s formation. He concentrated the residential, supply, and transport ships in the center of the fleet, establishing a comprehensive defensive perimeter. A vast number of combat ships then massed on the fleet’s periphery, ready for battle.
Li Qingsong saw that of the Harville Civilization’s total of approximately 1.5 million Warships, about 400,000 were stationed around each planet on average.
The remaining 300,000 Warships were scattered around some of the larger dwarf planets or served as a mobile force in space, making for a relatively balanced overall deployment of forces.
By now, his strategic intention—to make Planet Two his primary target—was clear. Consequently, the Harville Civilization began a massive redeployment of its forces.
A large number of Warships were mobilized from neighboring planets, converging around Planet Two. In a short time, the number of various types of Warships garrisoning Planet Two skyrocketed to about 800,000.
This was the nature of space warfare. Large-scale fleet movements between two sides could not be concealed; they were crystal clear to the opponent, making the concept of a surprise attack practically nonexistent. A small-scale fleet might go undetected, but its limited combat power meant it could never break through the defenses of a major planet.
It wasn’t that schemes and subterfuge had no use here, but their impact was generally small. In the end, everything came down to a direct confrontation on the battlefield.
With both sides on high alert, the two fleets drew closer and closer.
Finally, Li Qingsong parked his non-combat ships, such as the Space-Air Carriers, at a distance of about thirty million kilometers from Planet Two, leaving behind a guard of roughly 200,000 Warships. The remaining 800,000 Warships assembled, bringing with them tens of millions of Unmanned Warships, as well as countless Mine-Sweepers, Mine-Layers, missile ships, Cannon Platforms, spy satellites, weaponized satellites, Laser Cannon platforms, and other unmanned combat units, and advanced rapidly on Planet Two.
War erupted in an instant.
The two fleets were still millions of kilometers apart when innumerable shields of light flared into existence, enveloping every Warship and larger unmanned combat installation. In that instant, it was as if tens of millions of new stars had appeared in space.
Energy Cannons fired instantly. Countless projectiles—which could be considered “Super Micro-Nuclear Bombs”—shot forward like a swarm of bees at a high velocity of several hundred kilometers per second.
Beams of high-energy Laser crisscrossed through space, while countless Landmines lay hidden in wait, ready to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy at any moment.
Vast numbers of spy satellites were scattered throughout the darkness of space, doing their utmost to conceal their presence. Like pairs of eyes, they strove to survey every detail of the battlefield.
Li Qingsong controlled the more than 20 million Clones located in the combat control room, using Super-distance Communication to command the ships on the front lines in real-time. Meanwhile, several times that number of Clones acted solely as human computers. They lay in the rest bays, doing nothing but contributing their brainpower for Li Qingsong to draw upon, allowing him to analyze the battlefield situation and make immediate decisions.
That’s right. The controllers of the 800,000 Manned Warships Li Qingsong had sent to the front line were all currently stationed far in the rear.
Li Qingsong also knew that the Manned Warships the Harville Civilization had deployed to the battlefield were likewise not piloted by soldiers inside them.
Their operators were also in the rear.
In addition to these Manned Warships, the Wukong AI was also operating at full capacity. Countless supercomputers calculated at full power, coordinating with the tactical versions of Wukong inside the true Unmanned Warships and various other unmanned combat installations to command the unmanned forces on the battlefield with maximum effort.
As soon as the war began, Li Qingsong keenly perceived that the Harville Civilization’s technological level was indeed somewhat higher than his own.
Their Warships surpassed his in every metric. Even the performance of their unmanned combat forces was slightly superior to his.
Yet, on the battlefield at this moment, Li Qingsong was not at a disadvantage.
The reason was simple: Li Qingsong had more Manned Warships! And on the battlefield, Manned Warships were the main force.
No matter how numerous unmanned combat forces were, they were merely support.
Although the Harville Civilization also had 800,000 Manned Warships deployed around Planet Two, they had only committed half of them to the battle—about 400,000.
Through his in-depth study of the Strong Core Civilization’s mode of warfare after mastering Super-distance Communication technology, Li Qingsong knew that this was likely not because the Harville Civilization didn’t want to commit more forces, but because they couldn’t.
In a model based on remotely operating Manned Warships, the limiting factor for force deployment on the battlefield was no longer the number of warships, but the number of warriors.
No matter how many Manned Warships one had, there had to be enough qualified warriors to operate them.
‘To operate these 400,000 Warships right now, using humans as a baseline, would require the equivalent of about 50 million human warriors.
But warriors also need to be rotated. The intense mental exertion causes fatigue quickly, making it unsustainable. You need at least three shifts of personnel to manage a proper rotation.
Looking at it this way… the number of qualified warriors the Harville Civilization possesses, again using normal humans as a comparison, is basically equivalent to about 150 million human warriors.
Based on the industrial might and scale of civilization the Harville Civilization has displayed, and again comparing them to humans, their population should be equivalent to about 300 billion.
In other words, their ratio of front-line warriors to total population is about 1 to 2,000. That’s actually a pretty outstanding ratio.’