At 9:40 a.m. on the 22nd, the Cyrus Fleet of the Central Fleet of the New Roman Imperial Army and the 13th Fleet of the Commonwealth Wehrwehr officially launched a decisive battle in the space of the interstellar planet Yi towards the Immortal spiral arm for about three astronomical units. The Federation fleet was divided into three lines and attempted to besiege each other from three directions.

Before the flanks of the Federation had not yet reached the battlefield, the "Cyrus" fleet, which had the superiority in numbers and firepower, under the command of Admiral Mohammed Ahmaiti, lured the battlefleet of the 13th Fleet of the Federation Army, which had been led by Admiral Henning Gessler, to attack head-on and gradually fell into passivity.

Countless intertwined energy, missiles, and electromagnetic shells, mixed with spatial fluctuations generated by antimatter annihilation, frantically swept through the two groups of Union battleships, mercilessly tearing these battleships named after the generals who once shocked their opponents to pieces.

The flagship of the Federation Army, the "Yang Willy", was at the top of the cone-shaped formation earlier, and was hit by the enemy's dense firepower, and the operation was serious, but now it is still fighting in the front of the enemy formation, desperately shooting at the opponent with the remaining firepower. The battleship, named after the legendary undefeated general, has fallen into a rather dangerous situation, so Admiral Henning Gessler of the flagship tactical command center has put on a space combat suit for the unexpected.

It is still unknown whether the three-way siege strategy adopted by General Sler when he was superior in overall strength was still unknown. However, at present, the battlefleet that he personally commanded the frontal attack had fallen into passivity and suffered more and more serious losses. All the Union servicemen were eagerly awaiting the appearance of a roundabout fleet on both flanks.

For the Imperial Army, victory seemed to be only a matter of time.

General Muhammad Ahmat sat aboard the flagship Cyrus the Great and calmly commanded the fleet to launch round after round of annihilating strikes against his opponents.

At 9:50 a.m., the two battleship formations of the Federation Army, which had been separated by the linear formation, completed the transformation and were reconnected from the "figure-of-eight formation" into a new linear formation. At this time, the positions of the Federation Army and the Imperial Army had been reversed. The Federation warships changed from facing the "easy" planet to facing away from the "easy" planet, and the Imperial warships changed from turning their backs to the "easy" planet to facing the "easy" planet.

But the Imperial Army always occupied the initiative and the pace of the battle that could lead to victory. When the Federation battleships completed their turn and formed a strong linear formation again, the original two parabolic formations of the Imperial "Cyrus" fleet also began to intersect with each other, continuing to slide towards the two ends of the newly formed Federation ship array. The situation is obvious, the federal army is led by the nose, and then it will be forced to split the formation again, re-turn, and repeat the unfavorable situation of forming two opposite "figure-eight formations" with the opponent just now.

Although there was the possibility that the enemy would divide his forces to launch an encirclement and annihilation from the flank, both General Ahmat himself and Jiang Ziyue, who relied on reconnaissance ships and briefing ships to observe the battle situation in nearly five astronomical units, were very optimistic that the Bundeswehr battlefleet would surely die.

At 9:55 a.m., in the midst of the white-hot fire of the fleets of the two sides, an unmanned reconnaissance ship of the Imperial Army suddenly appeared about 300,000 kilometers behind the rear of the Imperial Army, and quickly sent out a laser beam aimed at the "Cyrus" Great, the flagship of the "Cyrus" fleet. This ship is from the Imperial Army's reconnaissance and alert network deployed in the Yi star field towards the Perseus spiral arm at a distance of 1,000 astronomical units.

An astonishing piece of information was immediately translated and conveyed to the tactical command center: three o'clock direction, one thousand astronomical units, Federation warships, seven hundred, Akuberi speed level four!

Before Commander Muhammad Ahmaiti could assess the impact of the new information on the situation of the war, another unmanned reconnaissance ship appeared in the nearby space and reported a similar message: at nine o'clock, 1,000 astronomical units, 700 federal warships and cruisers, and the Akuberi speed was 4!

This means that, in addition to the nearly 10 seconds for the reconnaissance ships to gather information about gravitational wave detectors, enter and exit faster than the speed of light, and transmit translation information, in nearly 1 minute and 30 seconds, the "Cyrus" fleet will be caught in the left and right attacks of the Federation Army—to be precise, surrounded on three sides, because the enemy battlefleet facing the bombardment has not been crushed, and still maintains strong firepower and strong will.

Almost at the same time, two Bundeswehr unmanned notification ships also appeared near the formation of the Bundeswehr battleships, passing on the exact time of the imminent arrival of reinforcements.

Admiral Ahmaiti, who was full of confidence just now that he could defeat his opponents, has now completely lost his previous arrogance and pride, and the sudden reversal of the situation has forced him to face a difficult decision.

Now, in front of the Imperial Army, it is necessary to make a choice in retreating right away and continuing the battle.

The wisest course of action is to retreat immediately, quickly disengage from the battle before the enemy forces on both flanks arrive, avoid enemy encirclement, and wait for another battle. But the abandonment of a frontal battle as soon as enemy reinforcements appeared was a great humiliation for a veteran of the new Roman Empire, such as Ahmaiti. Instead of retreating, but continuing to follow the current rhythm and the balance of forces, in a short period of one minute, the "Cyrus" fleet could not annihilate the enemy head-on under any circumstances, and was ready to deal with the enemy's reinforcements.

General Mohammed Ahmaiti, who had always been known for his bravery and decisiveness, hesitated. Although the inner struggle lasted only a few seconds, it felt that it was not long for him and the officers around him. After all, in this faster-than-light age, the average warship would sail at a speed of four degrees at the speed of Akbri, which would be equivalent to 5,000 times the speed of light flying over ten astronomical units per second!

"Stop changing formations, shrink formations!" General Ahmat finally gave the order, "Stop spiraling, go full speed, and penetrate the enemy formation!" After Ahmati finished speaking, he also marked his intention on the induction stereo imaging and made a legend analysis to his subordinates.

He wanted to penetrate enemy positions at one-half of the maximum speed of reaction propulsion. In this way, it is possible to catch the enemy by surprise and even break up its formation, and it can also fly to the rear of the enemy formation and quickly break away from the battle. If it succeeds, it will be possible to make new countermeasures according to the specific situation of the enemy forces on both flanks.

It's a compromise, but it's also a risky one. Stopping the spiral allowed the ship to rush through enemy lines in the shortest possible time, but it also meant that the likelihood of being hit was greatly increased. Instead of using active radar, the Federal Army was able to pinpoint Imperial warships sailing in a straight line reaction with the help of a passive gravitational wave detection system. Therefore, in the process of approaching the opponent's formation, the injury is likely to increase significantly. Moreover, in the process of penetrating the opponent's formation, it is easy to be entangled by the opponent, forming a bloody and terrifying large-scale ramming battle and broadside battle, then in the face of the enemy's overall superiority, the situation of the imperial army will become extremely unfavorable.

With the order, the battleships and cruisers of the Imperial Army immediately stopped the lateral formation movement towards both ends of the opponent, and also stopped the irregular spiral lateral movement of the single ship, and at the same time activated all the thrusters, began to approach each other, and accelerated to the frontal Union line battleship formation while firing.

Bundeswehr Admiral Henning Geisler did not perform well at all at first, neither the cone formation nor the linear formation could seize the initiative in the battle, but fell into the opponent's small tricks, causing his own battleship formation to fall into a bitter battle. However, the sudden movement of the enemy still made him see the clues, and the enemy must have sensed his offensive strategy of dividing and attacking together, and was preparing to use the remaining time to break his own formation.

So, General Henning Geisler hastened to order: "Retreat at full speed and keep your distance from the enemy!" Strengthen your firepower and be sure to hold off the enemy! ”

The Union battleship quickly activated the propulsion system in the opposite direction and began to retreat while firing fiercely.

The battlefield soon took on a peculiar scene. The fleets of New Rome and the Perseus Federation formed two frontal linear formations, firing at each other, one accelerating forward and the other accelerating backwards.

Both warships were bathed in the energy emitted by the other. Flying missiles, swinging lasers, and straight particles weave a web of energy and death, constantly piercing the battleships trapped in them, blasting out bursts of bizarre flashes and destroying them into uncontrollable space junk that only moves coherently.

Since the main reaction thrusters of most warships could not be turned forward, the power of the ship's backward movement was insufficient, and the Bundeswehr could not keep up with the opponent's straight line at full speed when it was facing the enemy head-on.

Faced with the approaching fleet of the Imperial Army "Cyrus", General Henning Geisler felt the pressure.

The distance of more than 100,000 kilometers is a very long distance for many ordinary people, but for these soldiers who gallop through the sea of stars, they can hardly reach even a drop in the ocean. At the current relative speed of the two armies, in less than ten seconds, the "Cyrus" fleet could rush into the battleship formation of the Thirteenth Fleet, and then pass them.

It's not an easy task to hold off your opponent either. Launching a brutal ramming tactic when an enemy fleet is approaching and freeing up the Marines for broadside engagement is a method that has been proven by history to be more reliable. However, this method will turn an orderly fleet artillery battle into a large-scale melee between ships and even between men and ships, and it will certainly greatly raise the cost of victory, and it will be impossible to achieve a crushing victory with an absolute superiority twice that of the enemy.

General Geisler also hesitated for a few long seconds. When the "Cyrus" fleet rushed closer to about 50,000 kilometers, he finally made a decision: "Turn around!" One hundred and eighty degrees! ”

This is also a compromise order and a risky decision.

Gesler did not intend to engage the enemy, but was prepared to turn when the enemy penetrated his own ship. At that time, you will be able to deal a heavy blow to the enemy's weakest rear with the greatest frontal firepower advantage, and complete a wonderful round of "Popping Chrysanthemum" performance! But in space where there is no gravity and air resistance, it takes nearly a second for a long and heavy battleship to complete a 180-degree turn. In this second, the enemy ship can completely complete the series of penetrating battle formations such as rushing into, passing over, and leaving, and then escape from the effective distance of 300,000 kilometers.

After the order was conveyed and the officers and men began to enter the order, the "Cyrus" fleet rushed into the battleship array of the Bundeswehr XIII fleet.

The rapid "convergence" of the two huge dense ship groups provoked a strong sudden change in gravitational waves, which lured the anti-collision systems of the two warships to sound a rapid alarm - although these warships are hundreds of kilometers away from each other, they are already a "dangerous distance" that is forbidden for interstellar navigation in peacetime.

In order to prevent accidental injury, all directed energy weapons on both sides have stopped firing, and only missiles with the ability to identify friend or foe and find are still being fired out of the magazine. The tail flames emitted by the opposing ship's thrusters and missiles formed a dense dot of light on your own real-time surveillance images.

The Imperial warships that rushed into the enemy line were far from reaching the top speed of half of the speed of light, and the distance of only a hundred thousand kilometers was not enough for them to increase to full speed. However, the opponent's steering maneuvers allow them to penetrate the enemy line with ease.

By the time the Bundeswehr battleships had turned around, the Imperial fleet had already crossed them for more than 100,000 kilometers.

"Fire!" Henning Geisler shouted anxiously.

Thousands of directional energies were instantly stimulated, piercing the void and catching up with the group of Imperial warships that were moving away, bursting with countless flashes of light.

The federal attack really made Mohammed Ahmaiti nervous. Many battleships are hit by thrusters, which are prone to loss of power. Fortunately, the timing of the opponent's turn was too late, and he only had time to launch a round of attacks, and he watched the Imperial Army quickly fly out of the effective combat distance of 300,000 kilometers.

"Speed up and chase the enemy! Don't let them run! In the communication system, Geisler screamed.

With the imminent arrival of reinforcements on both flanks, the situation has been completely reversed. The enemy, who had completely taken the initiative and superiority just now, has been reduced to passivity, and now it is necessary to hold them back as much as possible and strive to completely annihilate the opponent.

Jiang Ziyue, who had been a spectator from more than two astronomical units away, not only saw the wonderful scene of the "Cyrus" fleet penetrating the column of federal warships through the reconnaissance ship and the notification ship, but also learned the news that the enemy's reinforcements were about to arrive. The combined number of warships of the three enemy forces was twice that of their own side, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse with the drag of the Imperial Army itself, logistics ships and scientific expeditions.

On the cruiser flagship "Siegfried", the anxious Jiang Ziyue decisively gave an order: "Order all logistics ships to leave immediately and retreat to the second assembly point on the return voyage." ”

"But, sir, General Ahmaiti has not given the order." First Mate Captain Joseph Dietrich reminded.

"Please carry out the order, Joseph. The sooner the logistics fleet leaves, the safer. Jiang Ziyue said firmly.

Judging from the current situation, General Ahmat did not intend to withdraw from the battlefield immediately after crossing the opponent's battle formation. Because his fleet formation still maintained a high density of ships and did not disperse. In this way, it is impossible to quickly enter the faster-than-light speed and break away from the opponent. Judging by Ahmaiti's actions in ordering to penetrate the enemy's formation, he was not the kind of person to retreat lightly.

At this time, the Imperial "Cyrus" fleet was flying towards the planet "Yi" in a dense linear array and nearly half a light speed, and the Federation battlefleet of more than 300,000 kilometers behind it also began to accelerate to catch up. Ahmai was already ready in advance, and when reinforcements from both flanks of the enemy arrived, he would turn left or right, depending on the situation, and go around the rear of the opponent's flank fleet as much as possible, and break them down with absolute superior firepower.

But he focused all his attention on the battle with the enemy, ignoring the logistics fleet protected by Jiang Ziyue. In Jiang Ziyue's view, once the enemy has established an advantage in overall strength, he can completely turn this advantage into the initiative on the battlefield and selectively attack the logistics ship group escorted by his weak cruiser fleet. Therefore, it is the best policy to let the logistics fleet withdraw as soon as possible and stay away from the battlefield.

"Are we going to follow it all?" Lieutenant Benjamin Alfrey, the navigator, hurriedly asked.

"No, there are enough cruisers at the rendezvous point to protect them. We're all here to stay, and General Ahmati is likely to need our support. ”

The powerful and large "Cyrus" squadron of the Central Fleet actually needed the support of a small Frontier Fleet task force composed of more than 200 cruisers, and the people of the Central Fleet might scoff when they heard it, but Jiang Ziyue's subordinates thought that this was completely possible. The Bundeswehr tracking fleet, which had previously defeated the superior Bundeswehr, had proven that their commander, von Jiang Ziyue, was a talented commander who excelled at defeating superior enemies.

Jiang Ziyue then connected to the scientific expedition team on the surface of the planet "Yi", and issued a warning and order: "Professor Bernstein, the enemy's reinforcements are almost coming, and we and the 'Cyrus' fleet are completely at a disadvantage. I hope that you will abandon the ground equipment and return to the research ship immediately. ”

"But......" Ulf Bernstein looked a little embarrassed, "Major, our men are scattered in many places to collect equipment, and it will take more than an hour to get them back by airplane. ”

"Major Jiang, is the situation really that urgent?" Chen Weiyin asked.

Whether it is Chen Weiyin or Ulf Bernstein, as scientists, their understanding of the war situation is far from keeping up with the rhythm of soldiers.

"We're probably going to have to give up on this planet for a while. You must retreat at once, and if we lose you, we will all be punished. On the stereoscopic imaging of the communication system, Jiang Ziyue's expression looked quite grim.

"Okay, Ziyue. Let's leave right away. "This time, Chen Weiyin finally seemed reasonable." Don't worry, Ziyue, I'll be safe. Don't worry. ”

After speaking, she smiled at Jiang Ziyue. Despite wearing heavy power armor, her beautiful smile is still clearly visible in the video of the communication system.

Perhaps this smile soothed Jiang Ziyue's anxious emotions, and he said in a calm tone, "Okay." See you in space. ”

After ending the call, Jiang Ziyue immediately ordered more aerospace planes to be dispatched to pick up the members of the scientific expedition team on the ground of the "Yi" planet. This time, he is determined not to let the woman he loves stay in the encirclement of the enemy.

Then, Jiang Ziyue sent another notification ship, ready to submit a request to his immediate superior, General Ahmaiti, to enter the battle.

Bundeswehr reinforcements appeared as scheduled, about 10 million kilometers to the left and right of the Reich "Cyrus" fleet. In this way, the 13th fleet of the Bundeswehr formed a three-sided attack on the "Cyrus" fleet.

In fact, the formation of such a three-sided siege was not the result of the precise calculations of Bundeswehr General Henning Geisler. If the Imperial forces had been fighting at their own pace, instead of penetrating the Federation ship formation, the two lines of Union reinforcements would have appeared behind the two flanks of their own battleship formation, instead of the two flanks in front of the enemy now.

At this time, the situation on the battlefield was as follows: About 60,000 kilometers in front of the "Yi" planet was the Imperial Army cruiser formation composed of more than 200 cruisers commanded by Jiang Ziyue, and in the past two days, there were two mixed formations of federal battleships and cruisers 20 million kilometers apart, and while shrinking their formation, they flew at high speed towards the "Cyrus" fleet that was flying towards the "Yi" planet, and the 13th Fleet battlefleet of the Federation Army commanded by Henning Guszjin followed closely behind the "Cyrus" fleet. Always maintain a distance of more than 500,000 kilometers.

With the help of reconnaissance ships that are constantly making short faster-than-light voyages, the battlefield situation is clearly presented in the flagship tactical command centers of the commanders of both sides. The three fleets of the Federal Army all rushed in a linear formation to the "Cyrus" fleet of the same linear formation. If this movement is maintained, the Bundeswehr fleet on both flanks will be able to intercept the Imperial Army in about a minute and a half.

On board the "Cyrus the Great", General Muhammad Ahmat stared at the huge stereoscopic image showing the situation of the battlefield without saying a word. What was once a good situation has turned into a dead place under siege.

The "Cyrus" fleet now has plenty of time to spread out and move faster than light. Before the enemy on both flanks enters the effective combat range of 300,000 kilometers and completes the encirclement, he retreats with his whole body. But this is the most reluctant choice of General Ahmat, and there is still a chance to fight to the death in front of him. After much thought, General Ahmat finally ordered: "Keep the formation, keep the speed, turn right and attack the enemy on the right flank!" ”

The staff officers under his command all understood that the general wanted to crush the enemy troops on the right flank before the enemy could complete the encirclement, but the enemy's battleship formation had always maintained one-half of the speed of light and was clutching more than 500,000 kilometers behind, which was quite dangerous. The "Cyrus" fleet must always maintain a straight line at the highest speed of light at half a speed in order not to be overtaken by the Federation battleship formations behind.

In this way, even in the face of the enemy on the right flank, which is only half of its own number, it is difficult to defeat it quickly and effectively, but because it has not entered a spiral state, it is easy to be hit by its precision and even entangled by the enemy. Once you can't quickly defeat the enemy in the front, it is easy to fall into the dangerous situation of the opponent's belly and back attack.

Someone boldly put forward the opinion: "Commander, is this too risky?" ”

"If it is not possible to crush the enemy fleet on the right flank, we will penetrate them, and then spread out of formation, go faster than light, and get out of the battle." Ahmat said calmly, and it seemed that he was ready to retreat. It's just that before withdrawing from the battle, he has to seize every opportunity to do his best to try to defeat one side of the enemy.

At this time, a notification ship changed to a faster-than-light state, and Jiang Ziyue's report came. Although Jiang Ziyue's practice of withdrawing the logistics fleet first was to act without the order of his commander, Ahmati did not react unhappily. On the contrary, the wise behavior of the other party makes him happy.

"I am very happy that Major Jiang can recognize the situation." Ahmaiti was relieved and happy to have a subordinate who could take effective action in line with the situation. The logistics fleet is safe enough for him to deal with the enemy wholeheartedly.

"Sir, Major Jiang hopes that you will agree to the entry of his cruiser fleet into battle." Supplementary report of the staff officer.

"With his little strength, he can only sacrifice his teeth to the enemy." Ahmaiti said contemptuously, "Reply to him and let him protect the expedition team from retreating, so that we don't have to worry about our fight." ”

In the eyes of General Mohammad Ahmaiti, no matter how wise and powerful he was to win more with less and stronger with the weak, in this battle in which both sides mobilized thousands of battleships, Jiang Ziyue and his cruiser fleet were always just a tricky character, and they could not affect the battle situation at all.

Another Bundeswehr Major, Robb, who was also considered to be a dragon character, commanded his cruiser Zhiyuan, following other battleships and cruisers on the left flank of the Imperial fleet "Cyrus". The Zhiyuan, along with the other cruisers, was placed in a linear array approaching the end of the planet Yi. The generals of the Federation fleet did not take these cruisers, which were only a few hundred meters long and far inferior in firepower and protection to the battleships, and placed them at the outer end of the formation, mainly as a warning.

From the beginning of the battle to the present, both the Imperial Army and the Bundeswehr have always been the respective generals and battleships that have led the course of the war. Like Robb and his cruisers, they are basically only equipped to follow the fleet mechanically to carry out orders. In a duel of thousands of battleships, neither the victory nor the name of the battleship can be determined.

Therefore, Robb could only sit in the captain's seat boringly, following the instructions and orders from the fleet commander as in a normal exercise. Until the communications non-commissioned officer reported to him: "Radio communication between enemy forces and the surface of an interstellar planet has been detected." ”

"Good!" Robb was thrilled by this unexpected discovery, and asked eagerly, "Can you decipher the specific content?" ”

"Not yet, sir. But the signal came sixteen minutes ago, and it's only now reaching us. Characteristically, it belongs to the civilian channel. ”

"Civilian channel?" Robb speculated suspiciously, "So, there are already scientists from the New Roman Empire on the interstellar planet!" Their expedition team, like ours, uses civilian communication channels. ”

"I guess so." The communications non-commissioned officer responded, "I have not received any information recently about the new Roman expedition team changing the frequency of radio communications, and I think they have been using communication equipment in accordance with the standards of the International Radio Union to avoid being attacked by us mistaking them for the army." ”

After listening to the analysis of his subordinates, Luo Bo was silent for a while, and then said excitedly: "Our opportunity to make meritorious service has come!" ”