Chapter 991: Chapter 534, Give Me an Explanation

The New World Torch Station has been very proactive since siding with Iron Fury.

During the battle of Tianyuan VI, they betrayed as traitors.

This is not exactly a glorious affair. The Empire has scorned them as despicable and shameless, without any sense of honor, and even within their own camp, there were many criticisms and secret mockeries.

No one likes a traitor, even if they defect to your side.

Interests are one thing, and moral stains another; the two do not conflict.

Even within the New World Torch Battle Group, there are some voices. Some warriors, unable to bear the mental torment, defected in squad-size groups, trying to return to the Empire.

The fate of these people… was rather tragic.

Some were intercepted by Wang Mengsong himself and secretly executed on the spot; others managed to flee back to the Empire, only to be arrested, detained, and tried by the Heretic Tribunal.

The atmosphere within the whole battle group took a nosedive.

In such circumstances, Wang Mengsong neither would nor dared stop the battle group.

He began actively participating in Iron Fury’s operations within the Spiderweb Domain, leading his group to one battlefield after another at a high frequency.

The fatigue of war left the warriors within the group no time to think about other matters; the undeniable war results quelled many rumors within their own camp.

Victory can cover many problems.

The premise is that the momentum of victory cannot be interrupted.

But actually, there’s nothing much to worry about.

Over the past four years, the Iron Fury family has been winning continuously. Small setbacks in the middle couldn’t alter the overall trend of victory.

Even if there is the Phoenix in the west and the Black Cross Army with the Bat Corps and Infinite Corps in the north, what does it matter?

When needed, they are firmly blocked; when needed, they are countered.

In Wang Mengsong’s view, the southern battlefield was the same.

Even though the Fury Flame Battle Group suffered a major loss in the Dragonhawk Star Domain in the south. But Wang Mengsong believed this was mainly because the Fury Flame Battle Group didn’t adequately gather intelligence on the Phoenix Battle Group and recklessly stepped into a trap.

He admitted it was indeed surprising that the Phoenix Battle Group had so many experts. However, the Phoenix’s overall strength is evident, totaling a thousand people; they are a loyalist warband and have no special permits that allow them to exceed this limit. They even don’t have a battle group fleet yet. Their navy strength relies on the so-called Alliance, and their army also relies on the Alliance army.

Although the intelligence also mentioned that the Alliance’s army is quite capable, even if viewed as on par with the Princess Legion, that’s all there is to it.

In terms of scale, the gap between the two sides is significant.

Now, Iron Fury’s enterprise has spread across the entire Spiderweb Domain. The power of an entire domain can be harnessed for my purpose, while the southern Alliance is merely based on a single star domain; what’s there to fear?

With this belief, when he received the order to join forces with the Fury Flame Battle Group and advance southwards to deal with the Alliance, he was full of confidence.

Fury Flame had almost deployed their entire force; though four years ago they suffered huge losses in the Dragonhawk Star Domain, losing many high-ranking, elite, and core personnel, their overall strength still remained: nearly three thousand interstellar warriors and the Fury Fleet, a formidable force not to be underestimated.

In addition to their own New World Torch, which has fifteen hundred men, and their fleet and auxiliary army.

After their combined southward advance, they should at least proceed smoothly, if not like a hot knife through butter.

But reality struck Wang Mengsong hard.

In the northern part of the Menghe Star Domain, the Alliance’s vanguard was stationed here, fortifying the surrounding planets into fortresses, posing significant obstacles to their advance.

The Alliance managed the area well, with wise and resilient strategies.

Their strategy, typically excelling at engaging in a decisive battle to swiftly intimidate an entire star sector’s enemy into submission and losing the will to resist, failed here.

The Alliance’s soldiers were like nails, rooted in those heavily fortified worlds.

To advance, each target had to be tackled one by one.

Even if in some star systems, the Alliance’s fleet had long been driven away, leaving the army on the ground without orbital control or external supplies, they stubbornly resisted on the surface, their morale terrifyingly tenacious.

What’s the point?

We’re not aliens or Chaos cultists, so why not surrender?

Despite this, Wang Mengsong actually didn’t feel that the situation would change drastically.

They possess absolute strength; even though the enemy’s will to resist is more stubborn than anticipated, as long as they dare to commit and are willing to invest, the ultimate victory must still be theirs.

Therefore, Wang Mengsong consistently advocated for the warriors of the Fury Flame and New World Torch to be deployed en masse and intensely into frontline battles. Those hard-to-crack tough nuts needed to be relentlessly tackled one by one, ensuring that the overall war situation could advance rapidly.

However, the commander-in-chief of this southern campaign was not him.

The leader of the Fury Flame Battle Group, Adler Politos, was.

Within the command structure, he had to follow Adler Politos’s orders.

But obeying orders doesn’t mean that he, Wang Mengsong, as a distinguished battle group leader, couldn’t offer suggestions.