Chapter 507, Helping Each Other?

Gu Hang couldn't help being stunned when he heard that Humphrey Paul, who had finally assembled the troops in the Spider Universe, went to the meeting alone and persuaded the entire fleet, including the Star Army on board, to surrender.

Especially when some details of the rumors came, it made Gu Hang feel even more incredible.

The admiral who surrendered was named Bowen Melandri.

The Inquisitor detained and interrogated Admiral Melandri's family, relatives and friends, and searched his residence and office during the subsequent investigation of Admiral Melandri, and obtained some confidential and non-public information.

It was mentioned that Melandri and Paul were old acquaintances, and they had fought side by side. According to his relatives, Melandri had a very good impression of Paul and thought that Paul was a "determined, infectious and trustworthy leader."

Because of this, when Paul and his Iron Armored Regiment were declared traitors by the Empire, Melandri was very shocked. In his opinion, Paul is simply a model of space warriors. He has kept the area safe and fought against the void zerg for hundreds of years. The Princess Star Region and even the entire Spider Star Region are peaceful because of him, and are not invaded by the void zerg.

"How could such a person betray the empire?"

This is what Melandri once said in front of his family.

He has said such a thing, how can such an obvious traitor and sympathizer of the empire be allowed to take such an important position?

——They obviously ignored that after that sentence, Melandri also said: "I will personally capture Paul to Holy Terra and let him confess in front of the Golden Throne of the God Emperor!"

Although his attitude seems a bit problematic, it actually does not seem completely unacceptable overall. Gu Hang is more curious about what the captain Paul said when he came to persuade Melandri? How could he lead the team to surrender on the spot?

Even the term "surrender" is not accurate.

That should be called "defection".

Judging from the information collected from all sides, Humphrey Paul seems to be a leader with great personal charm, and his charm attribute is full.

…

The surrender of a senior general like Melandri is a huge crime, and someone has to take the blame.

His family and many relatives and friends who were close to him in the past were executed; several senior officials of the Spider Web Universe who recommended him to lead the fleet were also implicated.

Political turmoil aside, the most important thing is that after Melandri defected, the defense force of the Spider Web Universe was almost empty!

The situation, which was already very bad, suddenly turned into corruption.

Among the fourteen star regions in the Spider Web Universe, three in the southeast had already fallen into the hands of Iron Fury Stone; among the remaining eleven, the remaining defense force is quite empty.

Although there are still some navy and star army, the number is not even as many as those who defected.

For subsequent defense, it may be necessary to rely mainly on the planetary defense forces urgently drawn from various planets as the main force, and then equipped with the two Mechanicus's Forge Worlds to support the Crusaders, and a large force of the [Blood Rose Sisters] sent by the Inquisition. In this universe, there are many combat sisters working for the Inquisition, and there may even be more than those who directly obey the Empire.

It seems that there are still some main forces, but in fact, they are already quite weak.

But in the Spider Web Universe, there is still a very powerful force: seven Space Marines.

These seven regiments are not transferred from outside, but are widely distributed throughout the Spider Web Universe. After all, this is a vast area with 8,000 worlds. It is reasonable to have seven regiments. In fact, on average, one planet is not worthy of one Space Marine.

What's more, these seven regiments may not all be fully staffed.

It seems that the forces subordinate to the Empire in the Spider Web Universe still have a certain strength. Seven regiments, plus the Sisters and part of the Skitarii, plus a large number of planetary defense forces... not weak.

If this force can be gathered together, united as one, and act under a unified command system, then they can't say that they can completely stop the invasion of the Iron Fury Stone, but at least they can turn the entire Spider Web Universe into a quagmire of war and drag the entire Iron Fury Stone into it.

In that case, the situation on the Empire side will be much better. As long as the Iron Fury Stone is dragged in the Spider Web Universe for a few years, even if the final price is to turn the Spider Web Universe into a mess, it can buy more time for the Empire to gather its forces.

However, this situation that the Empire expected did not happen.

Why do those planets want to turn themselves into a mess?

Surrender becomes a very rational choice.

If resistance can eventually resist until the Empire comes to rescue, then it is worth resisting.

This is also the biggest reason for most planets when facing interstellar wars: when fighting foreign enemies, there is no doubt that if they do not fight, they will be destroyed; when there is a clear hope that the empire will come to rescue, they can also resist and then wait for others to rescue them.

But in this war, there is nothing. If you are not an external enemy, you will be treated preferentially if you surrender; don't expect to be rescued if you fight to the end. It is obvious that the Empire regards these planets as "resistance lines", hoping to trade space for time and let them delay as much as possible, don't expect to be rescued.

Then who will care about you?

You can't even say that they are not loyal.

Some people are more loyal to the Empire than their hometowns, so they lead the planet to resist, and then they are personally led by the Ironclads, who don't know how many Space Marines are hiding underwater; while some people may be quite loyal to the Empire, but considering the preservation of their hometowns, they "painfully" choose to surrender.

The other seven trustworthy regiments, the Battle Sisters of the Blood Rose, and the Skitarii of the Mechanicus should have been regarded as the backbone.

However, their situations are different.

There is a regiment that rebelled against the Ironclads on its home planet. The regiment went down to quell the rebellion, but was defeated directly on the ground by the coalition of Iron Armor and Fury, which had ambushed and escaped the regiment's intelligence network at some point. Only a small number of them escaped.

Two regiments, together with the Blood Roses, formed a combat force to rescue a world called Tianyuan VI, which was struggling under the attack of the Iron Armor regiment.

As a result, after arriving, they found out that this was a trap to besiege and attack the reinforcements. In this crucial war, one of their regiments turned on the spot, and internal riots broke out. Coupled with a large number of Iron Armor Space Marines, this elite force was buried on Tianyuan VI.

The Blood Rose suffered a heavy blow in this battle.

Among the other four regiments, two more stood on their side under the persuasion of the 'Succubus' Humphrey Paul.

The last force that may cause great trouble to the Iron Fury Stone is the two forge worlds of the Mechanicus, which belong to the same system called the 'Alfonzo Sect'.

Of course, they also received orders from the Empire to contribute manpower, resources and resources to resist the Iron Rage Stone.

However, their performance was somewhat ambiguous.

The orders were still obeyed. The Skitarii also sent out equipment and munitions.

However, the Skitarii did not send enough, and they were independent and did not listen to other people's orders. In the war, they were just paddling all the time, not fighting any key battles, just playing side games.

Strangely, the Iron Rage Stone did not provoke them. When attacking, they basically avoided the places where the Skitarii were stationed.

The two sides seemed to have some kind of tacit understanding.

The Alfonzo Sect said, my sphere of influence is just this point, two forging worlds, plus some core mineral worlds in the universe provide me with resources, if you don't provoke me, I will not bother to care about you. Although I sent troops, I protected my territory; although I also provided equipment to the Empire, you understand that it was only out of necessity.

The Iron Armored Corps also said, I respect your sphere of influence, you can guard yours, but don't mess up my plan; you can provide the Empire with equipment and weapons, but don't buy too much; if I need to buy, you have to sell me some.

Of course, there is no evidence for these words, just some so-called "suspicions" expressed by the Inquisition when accusing the Alfonzo Sect.

However, there is no evidence, anyway, as a bystander and a third party, Gu Hang stood next to the star map, looking at the map and talking, he seemed to hear the two sides talking like this.

Gu Hang couldn't help but sigh, this Humphrey Paul is really amazing.

"Succubus", this is a joke that Gu Hang made about Paul in private.

But in fact, it contains Gu Hang's considerable fear.

This person's charm attribute is really full. The most important thing is that the Iron Armored Corps has been very powerful in the past hundreds of years and has established influence everywhere. Although there are people like the Bauhinia Rebellion who have grudges against the Iron Fury Stone, there are more people who have received their help and are on their side.

Of course, just having a relationship and a past friendship may not be enough. In addition, it still depends on Paul's diplomatic skills and the exchange of interests.

Friendship is the foundation; diplomatic ability and leadership charisma are means and methods; exchange of interests is the essence.

What benefits can those who surrender, defectors, and people and forces who stand on the side of the Iron Fury Stone get?

Simple benefits are definitely not enough. No matter how much Humphrey Paul talks, he can't change the fact that the Iron Fury Stone is rebelling, and can't change the warnings from Holy Terra one after another, which are becoming more and more severe.

No matter how many benefits there are in front of you, if the final result is defeat, it will all be in vain.

Obviously, Paul made many people believe that he can succeed in the end.

This success may not be to overthrow the empire.

That would be too dreamy.

But at least it can prevent the empire's interference within the region, so Iron Armor is considered to have "won".

The Purple Gold Flower Rebellion more than 120 years ago is a good example.

Although the scale of their actions is much larger than that of the past, the Empire is not so easy to compromise; but also because of the large scale, the situation is more terrifying, and the "united front value" may become very high.

As long as there are a series of military victories and a growing momentum, more and more people will believe that the Iron Armored Corps will win in the end.

What's more, sometimes when the Iron Armored Corps hits the face, the choice before many forces is to die, or to believe that the Iron Armored Corps can win.

So what to choose?

Naturally, it is easy to choose the latter.

Once again, it must be emphasized that this is a "human civil war" after all. If you lose the greenskins, you will not be slaughtered; if you lose the abyss demons, all of them will be corrupted into psychopaths and finally be sacrificed; if you lose the void zerg, the entire planet will become food...

Of course, you have to fight to the end in foreign wars. Anyway, whether you resist or not, you will die in the end, and you will definitely bite you before you die.

Fight a civil war, surrender, the rich and powerful will still be rich and powerful, maybe even more powerful; civilians can survive, and the will to resist is greatly reduced.

...

The situation in the Spider Web Universe has been rotten.

Gu Hang saw this and was shocked.

Sometimes he couldn't help but compare, if it was him or the Alliance, if they made such a wave in the Eastern Universe, could they make such a momentum as "Iron Fury Stone"?

I'm afraid it won't work.

First of all, there is still a gap in hard power. The Alliance will have to accumulate naval assets in four years, but Iron Fury Stone has it now, and it is even stronger. After obtaining the fleet led by Melandelli to defect, it will be even stronger, and the two sides are almost incomparable.

In terms of ground forces, the two sides may be able to compare. Although Iron Armor may have more than 10,000 Space Marines, Fury and Stone Shield must have been reborn, the total number of each is probably more than 2,000 or 3,000, adding up to more than 15,000 Space Marines.

This is still a conservative estimate.

The Phoenixes that the Alliance can bring out strictly abide by the regulations of the Space Marine Codex, and the number of them honestly does not exceed one thousand.

However, in terms of quality, I am afraid that after the bloody battle with the Fury Legion, no one dares to underestimate it.

Moreover, Gu Hang is confident that the quality of the Alliance Army is definitely better than that of Iron Armor's famous auxiliary army.

However, there is only one thing that Gu Hang and his Alliance can never compare with Iron Armor: hundreds of years of accumulated reputation.

This is something that Gu Hang cannot make up for even if he has a diplomatic master with full charm attributes.

Without reputation, it is difficult for Gu Hang to convince many people to stand on his side and believe that he can achieve the final victory and not resist the empire to the end.

His alliance, in fact, is the same as Iron Fury Stone. If it rebels, it cannot be dragged into the quagmire of war in its core area and cannot extricate itself.

From this perspective, it is indeed unlikely that the Alliance will be able to achieve the effect of Iron Fury Stone after choosing to rebel.

The reason why Gu Hang started thinking about this problem was that he recently received a personal letter from Humphrey Paul.

In it, Paul invited the alliance to start an uprising in the south.

Paul promised that he would never go south, and the two sides could engage in trade and even help each other!