In the returning fleet, Tang Lang, who had listened to the introduction of the current Federal War Bureau and held a high-level meeting of the new independent fleet, unexpectedly saw many familiar faces.

Originally, Tang Lang wanted to meet these captains and mecha battalion commanders under his command, and by the way, he also learned about their personalities.

As a result, the first one to appear in front of the video conference projection turned out to be the mushroom Liang he was familiar with.

"Sir, aren't you surprised!" Qiu Ruge was obviously very happy to see the rare surprise on Tang Lang's face, and he smiled brightly.

"Ruge, why are you here?" Tang Lang looked at the girl in the captain's uniform with some curiosity.

If it is said that he was promoted quickly and was directly promoted from a cadet to a major general, then there is still a "victory" medal as an excuse, and there is an independent regiment at the regimental level as the foundation, which is not too abrupt to say in any case. Although the 27-year-old substantive major general is indeed a bit shocking.

But compared to this girl who was just a civilian two months ago, but now she has the rank of captain, it is really not fast.

"I'm now the equipment maintenance officer of the Independent Fleet of the Southwest Federation!" Qiu Ruge smiled and said, "Why can't I be here?" ”

"It's going to be a meeting soon, I won't explain more to Brother Tang Lang first, you just need to know that my captain's rank is definitely not coming through the back door." Qiu Ruge watched the soldiers sit down in the three-dimensional projection and saluted Tang Lang, hurriedly stuck out his tongue and saluted Tang Lang with a non-standard military salute and sat down first.

Tang Lang grinned, just look at this military salute, if he didn't go through the back door enough, he would rather change his surname to Qiu, if it is not good, there is the credit of the white-haired uncle operating in the back.

"Report to the sir, the fresh graduates of the Southwest Military Academy are reporting to you with 235 graduates!" The old Bang Li, who was dressed in the rank of captain, was saluting Tang Lang.

"Report sir, Chu Ming, a graduate of Qingyu Military Academy, reports to you with 126 graduates!" Chu Ming, who was dressed in a captain's uniform, saluted Tang Lang.

Looking at these familiar faces, Tang Lang secretly suppressed the horror in his heart and returned the salute one by one.

Tang Lang was shocked not by the fact that these students who were supposed to be in the academy had graduated early and entered the army, but that almost all of the people who came to his independent fleet were people who had some connection with him. Tang Lang even dared to be sure that although it was Qiu Ruge, Lao Bang and Chu Ming in this meeting, and when they left the conference room, there were still many people in the group of trainee officers who could be named by him.

What does this mean? It shows that Changsun Hong took out twelve points of strength in order to allow him to fully control this fleet, first expanded into an independent regiment based on Shen Chengfeng's first section, and then actually controlled the independent regiment in the name of letting him come to the meteorite star sky to collect minerals, and finally expanded into an independent fleet again with the independent regiment as the core, afraid that he would be too young and too young and too young to speak in the suddenly expanded fleet, so he simply sent his comrades-in-arms on Lafite and the seniors he knew in the academy over.

In this way, not to mention that he wears the rank of rear admiral on his chest can intimidate everyone, even if he doesn't, with his connections, who else in the independent fleet can compete with him?

Changsun Hong's incomparable trust naturally made Tang Lang a little grateful, but this trust contained more invisible crises. Tang Lang could feel Changsun Hong's anxiety and vigilance about the undercurrents surging among the various factions in the Federation. He handed over such a sharp knife hidden in the shadows to Tang Lang, probably not hoping that Tang Lang would lead the independent fleet to emerge into a strong army in the battle against Jiepeng, but a mobile force that could be placed in the shadows and could deal with crises at any time.

And who is he guarding against? The first person in the federal army can take such a big effort to take precautions, and if you think about it, there are only a few people.

Could it be that the biggest hidden danger of the Federation is not on the outside, but on the inside? Reminiscent of the mercenaries of the Black Hawk Company of the Great Eagle Empire, they actually jumped into the territory of the Federation to wreak havoc, stirring up panic and demoralization in the Federation. Tang Lang's eyes became more and more cold.

Such a person, when the nation is in danger, still thinks of muddying the waters to fish in troubled waters, no matter what his purpose is, he deserves to die.

Otherwise, how could the souls of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people on Pegasus be at peace?

The people who attended this meeting were originally all military personnel at or above the lieutenant colonel level, but because Tang Langxin returned from a foreign land, it was regarded as a welcome to him, and he also had to introduce outsiders like Anji to let everyone know, so he simply let all officers at or above the captain level observe, and only officers at the rank of lieutenant colonel could speak.

Of course, with the unification of the meteorite starry sky by the Independent Regiment, a large number of rare mineral resources arrived in the Federation, and a detachment of the Sixth Army Corps of Jeppen was completely annihilated in the Bermuda Star Area, plus the expansion of the Independent Regiment into an independent fleet, all the personnel involved in the battle were promoted, including Wei Chijian, Chen Shi and other personnel familiar with Tang Lang, who either became colonels or lieutenant colonels, and they can be regarded as the backbone of the independent fleet.

The more than 200 crew members who followed Tang Lang to the magnetic storm center to search for their comrades were even more generous because their lives were unknown, and they were basically promoted to two ranks.

The fat man also followed awesomely, he was originally a small mechanic, if he successfully graduated from the Qingyu Military Academy, no matter how good his studies were, he would be a captain, but now he has become a certain major, a dignified battalion-level officer, and a large number of officers and soldiers will take the lead in saluting him wherever he goes.

The moment he got the official military rank from Jiang Cheng, the smile on the face of this product never stopped, and it was seen that Major General Jiang Cheng was eager to take the military rank back from this product. Can it still be done, the motherland is still in dire straits? Are you laughing so much that your little tongue is exposed?

This kind of large-scale promotion of military ranks, of course, is not to be thought of in peacetime, but now it is not only a compliment, but also an invisible incentive to the officers and men of the independent fleet.

Obviously, with Major General Lang, there is meat to eat.

The topic of the first military meeting of the independent fleet to welcome back their commander was simple: should they return to the military federation to deal a severe blow to the mercenary group of the Great Eagle Empire, which is arrogant and domineering? This is a difficult problem facing many officers of the Independent Fleet.

The independent fleet is under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Military Affairs, but before the information is silent, the order given to them by Admiral Sun Hong, the chief of military affairs, is to search back to Tang Lang and hibernate in the meteorite starry sky, and wait for the military order to send troops from the meteorite starry sky at any time.

Jiang Cheng and Shen Chengfeng both understood that Changsun Hong meant to let them be a surprise army, and when they fought with the Jiepeng Empire, their surprise soldiers, who were not in the calculation of the Jiepeng Empire, would attack and become a victorious army.

Although several high-level officials knew about the existence of the independent fleet, Changsun Hong's cover-up work was very good, and even the head of state, Ming Donglai, only knew that it was a fleet formed by Tang Lang on the basis of Shen Chengfeng's air pirates, which was mainly used to collect various strategic resources for the Federation in meteorite starry sky and air piracy operations.

As for the size of the fleet, every normal person will know that it can't be too big, at most it is the strength of a star-level garrison fleet. Such a fleet, not to mention the key factor used for the decisive battle of Starfleet, is to use them as cannon fodder.

No one knew that Changsun Hong actually secretly sent the starships that had been sealed by the Federation to the meteorite starry sky, and transferred several capital ships and most of the officers and men of the 3rd Subfleet of the 2nd Fleet to build a small fleet that did not enter the stream and fought against air pirates into a force with at least half of the main fleet.

Before Tang Lang left, there were a total of three destroyers, but when Tang Lang returned, he had a new-stage fire support ship "Li Xin" under his command, and three old cruisers "Zhou Bo", "Wei Qing", and "Huo Guang".

In fact, many starry sky countries do this, in the event of war, these old starships are instantly pulled out into a fleet or even several fleets, and their strength is not worse than the strength of the existing fleet.

This is the so-called war potential. The Southwest Federation, which has always been on guard against its neighbors, has been prepared for danger in times of peace for a hundred years, and it will make the mistake of cutting off its own wings, and there are not a few starships that have been sealed in the name of old.

In addition to the three main cruisers, there are more than 30 destroyers and frigates of various types, that is, in addition to the mother ship that the main fleet should have, there are many other independent fleets.

The role of the mothership in the fleet is undoubtedly extremely important, the huge hull of several thousand meters can store thousands of starry sky fighters, and when encountering a starship group in close combat, thousands of starry sky high-speed fighters are absolutely terrifying.

But fortunately, the Federation has suffered a big loss in the transport ship, and the latest transport ship "Li Xin" can completely replace the function of part of the mothership, and the 2,000-meter-long Li Signal can also store hundreds of star fighters after emptying the transport module, and it can barely be used as a mothership.

Tang Lang even suspected that this kind of "perverted" transport ship had already had a proposal for a small mothership before it was designed.

The strength of the independent fleet is strong enough, and it is not strong enough to shake a main fleet and not be afraid of a mercenary fleet, even if he is from the Great Eagle Federation, the performance of the starship may be stronger than that of the Federation starship.

But the officers and men who had swept through the meteorite starry sky and annihilated a fully formed fleet of the Jeppen Empire with three destroyers and more than a hundred assault ships had this confidence.

They are a regular army, no matter how mercenary they are, they are not an army, and they are just a large air piracy gang.

Before Tang Lang came back, Jiang Cheng had already organized a military meeting, and although there were disputes, he still came up with a final plan: if Tang Lang could not be found after waiting for another 24 hours, the independent fleet would return to the Federation to fight a decisive battle with the mercenary group.

And now, Tang Lang is back.

All eyes were on their young commander, whether close to him or just acquaintance with him, waiting for the decision of the Supreme Commander of the Independent Fleet.

Tang Lang didn't speak, but just pressed his hand on the command seat, and brought up the sculpture of the wreckage of the mecha on Pegasus, as well as the blood flowing in the underground shelter of Pegasus that can only be found in the army.

"I'm not a gentleman, revenge never sleeps overnight!"

Tang Lang's cold voice resounded through the ships.

"The whole army immediately opens the artificial jump channel, target, the southwest galaxy! Help me connect to the Southwest Military Region Command immediately, and I want to talk to Commander Tang. Fleet technical maintenance officer to my flagship, I have a task for you to complete. ”

No one expected that Tang Lang was even more resolute than most people thought, and the independent fleet didn't even return to the Krama Star Base, and not long after leaving the Bermuda Star Domain, they couldn't wait to start the artificial jump.