At the same time, in the CEC intelligence control room aboard the Annark, the Union Army intelligence staff officers working there received an extremely vague piece of information.

This information came from the squadron of Swordfish fighters that had been sent out to the moon to conduct a power reconnaissance.

It seems that because of the influence of the Minovsky particles, there are gaps in this information, and after that, the Federal Army also tried to contact the Swordfish reconnaissance plane that sent this message, but because of the influence of the Minovsky particles, the Federal Army and this squadron completely lost contact.

After piecing it together, the intelligence staff officers of the Federation Army still roughly guessed what this piece of information wanted to express.

That is, a large number of Zeon troops appeared in the rear of the main fleet of the Federation Army, and the number is unknown, and they are rushing towards the United Fleet.

There is no doubt that this is a very important piece of news, and the intelligence staff officers of the Federal Army are very aware of the importance of this information, but unfortunately they cannot determine the authenticity of this information, because this information is not only incomplete, but also has no other materials that can be corroborated, optical pictures, heat source information, radar maps, nothing, only such a piece of news without beginning and end.

Obviously, with the Combined Fleet having already determined the main direction of attack for Rum, it is impossible for the Federation Army to change its strategy because of this incomplete piece of information.

"Hasn't it been determined, Zeon's main force is in Rum, and His Excellency Thiam has already informed the general," this is the mainstream opinion of the intelligence staff, they believe that this is just a tactic of Gesilia's troops to lure the enemy, and the Federal Army's judgment of the battle situation is that Rum is the main and the moon is the secondary: "This is just another farce." ”

"That can't be said, even if there is a ninety percent probability that this information is false, we can't let go of that one percent possibility, isn't this our job?" There are also people who argue with reason.

"We all understand the consequences of the combined fleet being raided by the Zeon Army now, and if this information is true, we can't afford the consequences!"

"But this can't be true, Lord Thiam has confirmed that the main fleet of the Zeon Army, as well as their MS troops, are in Rum, we all know that Zeon can't have another main force to attack the combined fleet!"

"I'd rather believe that this is a feint of Cecilia than that Zeon can form another main force under our noses, they don't even have the officers of the current army, can they have the spare to come up with the officers of another fleet?"

"We all know what their non-commissioned officer school is like, and Zeon's current troop size is already at their limit!"

"Maybe the rum direction is a feint, and their real target is the Combined Fleet?"

"Leaving the weaker Third Fleet to challenge the Combined Fleet, are the Zeon men fools? Besides, Zeon's main force in Lum is reliable information backed by Lord Tiam, can this kind of unclear information be compared? ”

"And what's going on with this piece of information? Are you going to say that our soldiers gave us false information? ”

"It's not impossible, this 。。。。。。。 The sergeant named Liang Baozheng did not reply to us with a specific number, maybe just a dozen warships and the corresponding MS, he thought that it was a very large scale, and this number of troops Jisilia could be taken out! ”

"We're not sure how big it is! If it's really the Zeon Army—that's probably impossible, and that's fine, but if it's just Cecilia's death, and our misjudgment makes the Combined Fleet turn around, we can't afford it!" ”

"Have you forgotten that Lord Tiam's fleet is still struggling to sustain itself? If the Combined Fleet is late because of our judgment, and the Third Fleet bears more losses, we will all have to go to court-martial! ”

"But if this information is true。。。。。。"

"That's very unlikely! Even if I want to gamble, I'd rather bet on the side with a higher probability! ”

"How can this be compared to gambling, our intelligence is related to the safety of the entire fleet!"

"Don't quarrel," finally the presiding officer, the head of the intelligence control room, spoke out to end the quarrel: "In any case, the most important thing for us now is to confirm the authenticity of the information." ”

"If the Doolittle squadron can't be contacted, send other squadrons to reconnoiter in the direction of the moon."

"Be sure to determine the exact size of the Zeon force."

"Yes!"

At this time, someone suddenly asked, "So, what should you do with Your Excellency Rebier?" Do you want to report back to him now? ”

This is indeed a problem, and it is obviously information that must be made known to Rebil as soon as possible, but 。。。。。。

"Wait a minute," the head of the office hesitated for a moment and said, "We will report to you when we confirm the situation, and don't use uncertain information to influence your judgment." ”

Another reason is that you should never give your boss some possible, uncertain, or ambiguous information, which will make your boss think that you are an unrigorous and unreliable person.

It is normal to have this kind of concern, no matter what position it is, as long as you are doing things under others, you always want to make a good impression on your boss, and your boss is busier than you, and the work is more important, and you must not let him be affected because of your imrigorous work, which is not even called scheming, but it should be done as a matter of course, the most basic etiquette at work.

It's better to say that those who can't do it are incompetent waste.

However, it was this small concern that led directly to the worst outcome, and there is no doubt that if this battle was a chess game, it was the hand that led to the collapse of the whole line.

By the time Reybiel learned the news, he had no choice.

Along with the fighter squadron that had gone out to reconnoitre, it was the main force of the Zeon Army's MS Force, and the First Fleet, which was lagging behind, immediately reported the incident to Annak and asked for instructions from Reybier.

"This kind of information should have been reported in the first place!" Kaningan burst into a rage: "Whether it is true or not, can you judge for Your Excellency?" ”

The head of the room who was scolded trembled all over, and people over 40 years old were so frightened that they burst into tears, not only because of his personal future, but also because he realized what he had done, and the main force of the Federation Space Force, the United Fleet, was facing a life and death test because of his thoughts.

"I'm going to take you to court-martial!" Kaningan wanted to tear this idiot to shreds, and how many years and how many people's efforts were going to be destroyed because of this idiot.

"You 。。。。。。。" Kaningan wanted to say something.

"Alright, Rod," but now Reybiel spoke, his voice as calm as ever, as if he had full confidence, and it must be said that everyone on the bridge of the Annak was visibly relieved at the sight of his appearance: "Now is not the time to say this. ”

"I'm also at fault, I was deceived by Zeon," he said lightly: "I didn't expect Zeon's spies to be so deep, our intelligence department needs to clean it up, Rod, remember to remind me to do this later." ”

"Yes, Your Excellency!" Kaningan gasped and calmed down a little.

"Well," said Rybier, to the captain of the gendarmerie of the USS Annec on the bridge, "the fellow who claims to have been sent by General Tiam, a fellow named Woolf Schmidt, arrest him, and interrogate him properly, for he is Zeon's spy." ”

"Yes!" The captain of the gendarmerie was ordered to arrest Zeon's spy.

Rebir turned to the head of the intelligence control room and said, "Go and tell General Thiam about our encounter with Zeon's main force, tell them that we can't support them anymore, and let them hold on until we have destroyed the Zeon forces before joining him." ”

"Be sure to tell Thiam himself, don't let me down again."

"Yes, yes! Thank you so much! Thank you very much, Your Excellency! The head of the intelligence control room had tears in his eyes, and he bowed deeply to Rebir with a crying voice: "Even if I don't want this life, I will definitely bring this situation to Lord Thiam!" ”

"Don't talk about losing your life, people can only have a future and fight if they live, and if you tell Thiam the news, you will be considered to have contributed to this battle."

"Do you understand? Be sure to tell Thiam himself, and he'll judge for himself the rest. ”

"Yes!!"

After doing all this, Rebiel took a deep breath and lowered the brim of the large cap on his head, hiding his eyes behind the brim.

Zeon's MS forces were already close at hand, and engagement was inevitable, and he had to decide on his next course at once.

He only had a few minutes to spare.

Caningan couldn't help but speak, "What to do, John? ”

"Do you want to retreat first?" Kaningan suggested: "If we retreat now, we will be able to keep most of the fleet, but this time because of Zeon's trickery, the battle situation is too bad to fight again." ”

“。。。。。。 No," said Rybil after a moment of silence, his fingers rubbing against the brim of his military hat, which Kaningam knew was his usual gesture when he was thinking, "You can't retreat." ”

"Zeon is not a general, he knows that I must not retreat here, and they have completely seized on his weakness," Rebiel made up his mind: "Here you can only fight, resist on the spot." ”

"But," Kaningan said anxiously, "we can't organize a defensive line now, and if we fight now, we will suffer unimaginable damage!" ”

"If we retreat here, it will hurt us even more!" Rybil raised his head slightly, Kaningan saw Rybil's eagle-like eyes through the gap under the brim of his hat, looking at the anger and shame in his eyes, as well as his fighting spirit, Kaningan understood that Rybil's mood was by no means as calm as he seemed.

"If we retreat without firing a shot, the Space Army will be finished," Rebier said seemingly calmly: "Although the Space Army is large enough, in the final analysis, it is a force without history and tradition, and abandoning its comrades and running alone will make this army instantly become a fish belly." ”

"And also to consider the idea of the federal government, the worst-case scenario, we are defeated, but as long as we show enough fighting spirit and resilience, the G3 will not consider surrender, because surrender will cause them more damage than resolute resistance," Rebier said coldly: "I won't hide it from you, Kaningan, this time is really my gaffe, and it is already a matter of little hope to win the war by winning a battle, even if it is for the sake of long-term combat in the future, A tragic and bloody defeat is better than an escape in the name of preserving strength. ”

"As long as the soldiers still have fighting spirit, tactics can be adjusted, soldiers can be replenished, and weapons can be developed and produced, but if we show a trace of cowardice, the Space Force and even the Federation will be doomed."

"We have no choice."

"Having said that," Kaningan argued, "the officers and soldiers on this battlefield are the elite we have accumulated over the past twenty years, and the sinking of the battleship is still secondary, and if they sacrifice on a large scale, the entire space army's frame will be shaken!" ”

“。。。。。。 They can be sacrificed," Rebile said coldly, and only at this time did people really feel that this general like Santa Claus, who never got angry, was truly reliable at critical moments and could do whatever it took to achieve the goal: "As long as necessary." ”

"Don't worry, we can't afford to die, Zeon will only be more unaffordable than us," Rebile shook his head and said: "In the end, battleships, MS, these weapons can be produced quickly, but the people who operate the weapons, especially those technical troops, are not something that Zeon can quickly replenish." ”

"The current scale of the Zeon Army is that it took 20 years to have such a scale, but the level of Zeon's officers, technical arms, hematopoietic system and our army is different, Zeon only has a non-commissioned officer military academy and a higher military school, and our number of space military academies alone is dozens of times that of the Zeon Army, this is the background, and the magnitude of the two sides is not the same."

"There is no shortage of Zeon population, and the scale of industry is large enough, but they couldn't blatantly expand the scale of the army before, and now even if they start to expand the army immediately, warships and weapons can be produced quickly, but officers at all levels, as well as battleship crews, and MS soldiers, can they take out these technical arms in ten days?" (Note 1)

"Not only are we larger than the Zeon Army, but when we have to, we can also call up reservists, veteran officers, and the remnants of the garrison army can also be used, but the Zeon people are one less dead, and it is worth it to exchange two or three of our men for one."

"It's not bad to exchange it for a beneficial defeat here, humiliation, unwillingness, and revenge will be the source of motivation for the survivors to rise again." Reybier said lightly as an understatement like a change on a chessboard, but in essence, he was completely ruthless with his subordinates, and even himself, as pawns.

Without this kind of ruthlessness, it is impossible to master the whole army, and this ruthlessness is exactly what Lear still lacks, it is not that he does not understand the necessity, and he is also trying to improve.

But Lear is too kind and too clean, even if he is stimulated by the tragedy of SIDE4 once, he can't make himself a completely different person until he suffers a bigger blow.

"Besides, we may not fail yet," Rybil suddenly smiled, and a confident look welled up on him, "Have you found out?" Rod? ”

Then, without waiting for Kaningan to answer, he said to himself: "At least part of the information provided by that spy is correct, but Zeon's main fleet is in Rum, and here it is nothing more than MS troops. ”

"The intelligence sent back by the reconnaissance plane shows that the Zeon army that came to attack us is mainly MS, and most of the fleet is transport ships and civilian ships, with only a few warships," Rebiel looked at Kaningan and said, "Do you understand what this means?" ”

Kaningan, as Rabier's most trusted confidant, and the patriarch of the Space Army, also has two brushes, and after a moment of silence, he said, "This means that they can't accept rearmament and have no reinforcements?" ”

"That's right," said Rebier with a smile, "as long as we survive their first attack, the Zeon army, which has run out of ammunition, will be able to retreat, and we can take advantage of the situation to counterattack, and we still have hope of victory in this battle!" ”

Indeed, Kaningan pondered it, and although the situation was grim, it was not hopeless.

He couldn't help but admire Reybil, as had happened countless times in the past few decades, not only because he was a friend or ability, but also because of Reybil's never-say-die fighting spirit and optimism to find opportunities in the face of crisis.

"Yes, John, you're right," he laughed, "and let's give Zeon a little color!" ”

"It's not enough to make the Zeon guys scared when they hear the prestige of the Space Army!" Rybil couldn't help but laugh too.

Although it was not clear what the conversation between the two generals was, when the soldiers saw the two laughing loudly, their hearts were relaxed, they did not understand how serious the situation was, but as long as the supreme commander still had fighting spirit, there would always be someone willing to follow them.

Just then, the gendarmerie captain who had gone to arrest Zeon's spy Woolf Schmidt returned to the bridge, saluting Rebile and Kaningan with an ugly face.

"What's the matter, did you catch that spy?"

"No, Your Excellency, I'm sorry," the gendarmerie captain's face changed: "The spy has escaped." ”

"He said he was going to get his life with Lord Tiam, and left on his shuttle."

"What's the matter, I don't remember approving his permission to leave the ship, why did you let him go?" Kaningan frowned and said, as the captain of the Annak, of course he needed his approval for the shuttle to leave the Annake, but he had no impression of approving Woolf Schmidt's departure from the ship at all.

"Was someone bribed by him, or was he derelict in his duties?"

"I've already asked the Control Tower about this," said the gendarmerie captain, bowing his head, "The spy did show an exit permit with your electronic signature." ”

"You're well prepared." Rebile said with a slight mockery, and he made up his mind that he must teach the federal military intelligence agency a good lesson.

"Is there anything else to report?" Kaningan said with an ugly face, this is his ship after all, and his face is dull except for such a mistake in his own ship.

"Yes, we found this thing in the break room where the spy had taken it," he said, and the gendarmerie captain showed a nondescriptive-looking suitcase, "We're sure this is what the spy was carrying." ”

"Upon examination, it was revealed that it was a spy device capable of emitting signals of a specific frequency."

"No wonder Zeon's troops were able to catch us," Rybir glanced at the suitcase, "and we're completely tricked." ”

"Not only the two sons, but also the little girl from Zabi's family can't be underestimated." The girl Rebiel was talking about was naturally Cecilia Zabi, and there was no anger on his face that he had been fooled, but rather admiration and surprise.

"Then I'll do the decisive battle as she wishes." Rabiel said with a wave of his hand.

"Rear Admiral Warken's First Fleet."

"All Magellan-class and Salamis-class warships turned on the spot and prepared to meet the Zeon MS forces."

"The auxiliary warships of the First Fleet, as well as the Antietam-class air carriers, continue to move forward in this way, and join up with the air carriers of this fleet."

"The fleet maintained its course unchanged and turned to form a formation after reaching a position 200 kilometers away from the First Fleet."

"Your Excellency, in this way, Walken's fleet 。。。。。。" Kaninggan's words stuck in his throat and not spoken, such an order meant that Warken's fleet would die for Reybier's fleet at any cost, and even Warken himself might not be able to survive.

But he also understands that this is a necessary thing, and now someone must stop the MS troops of the Zeon Army and create an opportunity for the Federation fleet to form a formation, otherwise when the MS troops of Zeon take advantage of the chaos to cover up, everything will be regretted.

And this task is none other than Hua Ken, despite this, Kaningan is still worried about whether Hua Ken can complete this suicide mission, after all, Hua Ken is a new official, let him take on such a task, I don't know if he can do it.

"Trust Warken," Reybier said lightly, "he won't let me down." ”

———— Dividing Line————

Note 1: Regarding the question that I set in this book that Zeon's population is as high as 2 billion, many people say that I have written it here, which is unreasonable, because if Zeon has a population of 2 billion, it is only a little less than the Federation after the British War (plus about 3 billion refugees in the universe, about 11 billion before the war, and about 3 billion war deaths in a week in the official history, while this book doubles, and half of the human race dies during this time). , it's like a flying dragon riding face - lie down to win.

But I still insist that the root cause of Zeon's defeat during the one-year war was not due to population, resources, or productivity (of course, at the end of the war due to production chaos and scarcity of key resources such as rare metals), but because Zeon itself was not a normal country with sufficient resources.

It does not have a rigorous and reliable bureaucratic system that rules the occupied areas for it, considering that Zeon's 'first knowledge of the earth' is actually Ma Kebey, it is conceivable that even if Zeon has officials, he will definitely not be able to govern the earth that he has never seen before, and it is also a world full of contradictions after the disaster, because Zeon can only occupy a few key areas (Odessa, California, Southeast Asian mining bases, African desert bases), and abandon the devil bunker rule model in non-key occupation areas.

At the same time, it can produce weapons and equipment, but it can't find people who can use these weapons and equipment, and low-level cannon fodder infantry can train for three months to go to the battlefield, and MS pilots need at least half a year of training, right? You must know that the training time of modern fighter pilots is at least five years, and it is only after flying thousands of hours that they are qualified, and half a year is already the speed at which historical time-travelers train the Divine Army.

And the crew of a battleship, a low-ranking crew can be recruited from merchant sailors, and after training in obedience, they can come in handy, but are officers who can understand and execute commander's tactics, think independently on the battlefield, are well-trained, loyal and reliable, so easy to train?

Can the damage management team on the battleship and the maintenance engineers of the core reactor be obtained through mass conscription, these training hours and requirements are higher than those of officers, but they are indispensable?

In just one year, how many people can Zeon train?

I think that's why the Zeon Army didn't have much difference in numbers from the terminal army at the beginning of the war, and it was seriously understaffed in the number of mid- and low-level officers and technical troops.

The fundamental reason for the militarization of the Zeon army and the size of the Zeon army has never been raised is this, a Musai needs at least dozens of officers at all levels, and at least the same amount of technical troops, and those low-level non-commissioned officers can also be selected from the soldiers for excellent promotion, but the officers who can understand the orders of their superiors must have received systematic military education, and the conscripts who have not received military education, and the passwords and tactical symbols are not clear and still expect to command the army?

The importance of officers and technical arms, as long as you consider the 100,000 officers with the name of soldiers retained by Germany at the end of World War I, and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, all of whom are senior civil servants, understand that this is by no means a quality that conscripts can achieve, and even if it has this foundation, it took Germany decades to rebuild its army, let alone the self-made Zeon.

The only thing that Zeon can make blood is the Zeon High Non-Commissioned Officer Military Academy, a military academy, and this school, in the years before the One Year War, that is, the year Char graduated, and the year before Lear's graduation, were still under the supervision of the Union Army, and the Federation Army could not allow Zeon to expand officer education unscrupulously.

Of course, there are also people who want to say, Zeon is not short of people, and in the end, isn't it even the student soldiers who are sent to the battlefield, Zeon does not lack production capacity, and even the trump card can only be opened Zagu, and the number of new mech warriors is seriously insufficient?

This can also be explained, on the one hand, Tomino and the original book and GTO have no settings about student soldiers, student soldiers only appear in the one-year war secret record as a second set, and the student soldiers are MS pilots, not cannon fodder infantry, in the later stage of the war, the number of MS pilots (high-tech troops) of the Zeon Army is seriously insufficient, and the student soldiers who are still being trained have to be sent to the battlefield, which is also a very reasonable situation, and it does not mean that Zeon lacks population.

The problem of the body, on the one hand, is that various manufacturers such as Zeon Nick and Zmad go their own way, and the production of Zeon armaments is extremely chaotic and the versatility is very low, on the other hand, it is also mentioned in the whole history of the One Year War, the problem of Zeon's lack of rare metals, which is obviously the history of NETA since Desan can only cut corners on armor because of the lack of rare metals, so Zeon itself does not have a production capacity problem, but is limited by raw materials.

And why are there not many warriors, it is clearly said in the original book, the operability is very unfriendly, so many aces like to open Zagu (especially the high-mobility Zagu MS-06R series used in the universe is highly evaluated, but it was eliminated because there is no beam weapon), but the warriors are all lost to rookies, and the evaluation is not high, plus Zeon is close to defeat when the warriors are mass-produced, and the total production is understandable.

Because I've been repeatedly said that my 2 billion population is a completely KUSO setting, but I did consider all kinds of factors, and I didn't just talk nonsense.

Then again, even if Zeon follows the original setting of 150 million people, the whole army of Zeon will not exceed one million troops in the final battle, and 150 million people will support less than one million troops, and there is no manpower problem itself.

So I have to go into a long speech, hoping to end this kind of evaluation, all of the above, and please understand that in the final analysis, it is still my personal ability to inadequate, if I can properly intersperse it in the text, I don't need to write this kind of stinky and long explanation.

Although I wrote such a long note, the text also has 6000+, and it is not filled with water, so please note it.

Please forgive this incompetent author, I will improve day by day.