Free Web NovelChapter 1359: Chapter 514: Anti-Pirate Operation
Zheng Tian paused for a moment before continuing, "While the Expeditionary Fleet was preparing for war, the Earl was not idle either. He devoted significant effort to researching the cultural environment of the Shattered Star Ring in detail. He believes that the Shattered Star Ring is not entirely filled with enemies. Those oppressed pirate peoples are precisely the ones that the Red Blade Clan can win over. They share the same fate as we did on Source Star, suffering under oppression, yet powerless to change their situation. Surely, they have a burning resentment in their hearts."
"What the Expeditionary Fleet needs to do is to first crush the shackles over their heads with absolute military strength, then ignite their will to resist, transforming them from the enemy’s reserve resources into friends of the Red Blade Clan, even becoming part of the Red Blade Clan. Because, in the human definition, the Red Blade Expeditionary Fleet is a force of justice. As long as we continue to uphold justice, we can surely reduce and weaken the enemy, strengthen ourselves, and gain more friends. Fight to sustain the fight, victory is ours."
"These are the Earl’s exact words."
After speaking, Zheng Tian switched the meeting to a smaller group of high-ranking personnel.
What she needed to do next were specific tactical arrangements.
She had already chosen the opponent for the first battle, precisely one of the new poles under the Seven Seas, named Golden Dogs.
In the past twenty years, with the support of Nanxiang’s Earldom, the Golden Dogs pirate group has developed extremely rapidly.
Its leader Beverly is known as Mad Dog, famous for his erratic and unreasonable actions. It is rumored that Beverly has some familial ties with the Fang Pirates, but he himself never acknowledges it. Some remnants of the Fang Pirates believed this to be true and eagerly went to seek refuge, only to be skinned by Beverly and hung with skin separated outside the main gate of the Golden Dogs’ highest administrative court, known as the Kennel.
The person wailed for seven days and nights before finally dying. Since then, although others didn’t get a definitive answer, they had their speculations. Beverly’s family certainly has ties with the Fang Pirates, and these ties are deep, but their separation was unpleasant.
Currently, the Golden Dogs have a powerful fleet with balanced capabilities in various aspects, consisting of over three thousand retired Imperial Army warships, modified with technology.
Although the basic structure of its warships is outdated, key parts such as energy shields, kinetic modules, long-range missiles, energy cannons, and information flow devices have been upgraded, giving it overwhelming advantages over ordinary pirate forces.
In just twenty years, this Golden Dogs’ Main Battle Fleet has waged wars everywhere, destroying and annihilating hundreds of small to medium-sized pirate groups, and has plundered countless merchant convoys. Merchant convoys without Nanxiang’s Earldom’s security affairs officer’s escort never leave survivors and are pursued and annihilated relentlessly. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Some even say the comprehensive strength of the Golden Dogs’ Main Battle Fleet is the strongest in the Shattered Star Ring. With Beverly’s frantic expansion strategy, it might not take a century for Golden Dogs to formally rival the planet system’s regular military.
Zheng Tian’s decision to target the Golden Dogs for the first battle was somewhat unexpected to others.
After all, conventional wisdom suggests tackling the easier ones first. But Zheng Tian has different considerations.
She first analyzed Beverly, his circumstances, and the structure of Golden Dogs, concluding that this force, though seemingly large, has a relatively small original team under Beverly’s command. Its current fame relies heavily on numerous small yet elite pirate forces rapidly forged through Nanxiang’s Earldom Special Service Bureau’s connections, including many active within the Nanxiang Star Cluster, mainly composed of Imperial civilians, as well as traces of life peerage’s small armed commercial enterprises and mercenary corps.
Thus, the Golden Dogs appear strong but are internally discordant, large but scattered, cohesive yet disjointed.
The forces intertwined around Beverly are not bound by lineage and shared hardship but purely by interests.
This kind of force will fight ferociously when going smoothly; after all, every battle is profitable. But once faced with a strong enemy, not needing to be overly strong, just showcasing the ability to cause severe damage to the Golden Dogs’ Main Battle Fleet through some small victories, naturally, the existing cracks in this fragile alliance can be ripped open and amplified.
When internal conflicts gradually become apparent, mutual trust erodes, and more consideration is given to self-preservation when facing a life-and-death crisis, the seemingly mighty fleet of Golden Dogs will become vulnerable.
