Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng took deep breaths in unison.
It would be a lie to say they weren't nervous.
They hoped the recorded speech wouldn't have any issues.
The speech wasn't long. The first playback finished quickly, followed by three repetitions.
Technicians began to get busy. After Governor Zhicun's speech, they would pause signal control to the Refugee Star.
Soon, reports began to come in, one after another:
"The Governor of Jiaxing State announces that, in strict accordance with the orders of Leader Zhicun Lintaro, the entire state will cease military resistance and surrender to the Galactic Empire!"
"The Governor of Justinian State issued a statement calling Zhicun's speech a complete fabrication and a shameless deception by the Galactic Empire, vowing to lead the army and people to hold out to the last soldier!"
"A military representative from Reje State issued a statement claiming Zhicun's speech was a fabrication, but that the war was no longer necessary. All city defense forces are to immediately surrender to the Galactic Empire to secure peace."
"The Commander-in-Chief of Boyi State issued a statement declaring Zhicun's speech to be absolutely true and that all states should immediately follow the leader's instructions to surrender to the Galactic Empire. Boyi State will, with the permission of the Galactic Empire, dispatch troops to punish defiant states."
"The Governor of Longdengying State announces the surrender of the entire territory to the Galactic Empire, and calls on other sister states not to engage in mutual slaughter."
"The Governor of Shuidai State announces gratitude for Leader Zhicun's decision, but Shuidai State will fight to the end to defend the dignity of the Refugee Star. Shuidai State officially declares independence and declares war on the Galactic Empire."
Declarations, notifications, and statements appeared like snowflakes, one after another.
Jiang Ye chuckled.
Cen Yemeng's maneuver had truly brought out all sorts of strange and monstrous entities.
The attitudes of the various states were quite telling.
Some states claimed to fully believe Zhicun's speech. They might genuinely believe it, or they might have been planning to surrender all along and used this as an excuse to step down, while also earning a reputation for loyalty.
Others claimed not to believe Zhicun's speech but surrendered nonetheless. These states were definitely intent on surrendering. Their declaration of disbelief in Zhicun's speech might have been to win popular support, to show loyalty to the Galactic Empire, or perhaps to play both sides – kneeling to the Galactic Empire while still speaking for their former leader, Zhicun.
Then there were the states that believed Zhicun's speech but did not surrender. These were quite interesting. They might have harbored rebellious intentions all along, only now revealing them and seizing the opportunity to revolt and declare independence. Or perhaps they were skeptical but used the declaration of war to signal their stance.
There were also those who surrendered and then attacked neighboring states that did not surrender, and those who did not surrender and attacked neighboring states that did. All claimed to be on the righteous side. Of course, there were also peacemakers who, regardless of surrender or not, called for an end to infighting.
The situation on the Refugee Star was completely muddled by this Zhicun speech.
Without waiting for Cen Yemeng's orders, the officers were already at work, formulating the next round of attack plans based on the declarations and statements from each state.
For the regions that surrendered, the occupation could be slowed down, troop deployment reduced, and heavy forces and military supplies concentrated on the hard-nosed states that refused to surrender, to break their resistance as quickly as possible.
Large-scale air raids began just half an hour later. Cen Yemeng had spent two weeks deploying for this very air raid.
A total of fifty states were struck almost simultaneously.
This strike not only destroyed visible enemy targets but also wiped out a large number of hidden targets detected by intelligence.
Nine naval shipyards and submarine bases were bombed. Old warships undergoing repairs and nascent new warships awaiting launch were collectively scrapped. Many aircraft carriers, proclaimed to be unsinkable, turned into debris within ten minutes. The seawater churned up by tactical nuclear weapons formed miniature mountain ranges, which then collapsed into devastating tsunamis. The docks were engulfed in flames, and ammunition depots were detonated by incendiary agents, scattering meteorite-like self-detonating munitions across the night sky, resembling giant, blooming flowers of death.
Following the bombing came the airborne deployment of mechanics. Black parachutes seemed to be torn from the night sky. Thousands of mechanical soldiers rapidly descended near the naval bases, opening fire with their focused submachine guns the moment they landed, their bullets sweeping across the entire base like a torrential downpour. Heavy weaponry also descended simultaneously: individual electromagnetic cannons and individual rocket launchers unleashed a barrage of shells, their deafening roars echoing.
The sailors of the Refugee Star were in a state of utter panic throughout. They believed their sturdy ships and bases had become coffins. In the darkness, artillery fire and gunfire rained down from all directions. Comrades continuously erupted in sprays of blood and fell. The base corridors were filled with corpses and bloodstains, the flames quickly drying the blood. Some attempted to escape by sea, but as soon as their ships reached the water, the entire surface was inundated with overwhelming firepower, even the waves being blasted into multiple fragments. All the sailors attempting to flee by sea perished in the ocean.
A total of forty-eight thousand sailors from the nine attacked naval bases were killed, over ten thousand went missing, and only five hundred were captured. The combat style of the mechanical soldier units was always to annihilate the enemy. Their speed in firing their weapons and launching artillery far surpassed that of human soldiers. The pitch-black mechanical soldiers, like grim reapers in the dark, left only ravaged corpses in their wake.
The government headquarters of over twenty states were bombed with high-yield aerial bombs, completely leveling all structures. The Biron Star Air Force utilized warp-capable spacecraft to carry out the strikes, rendering the ground-based air defense systems completely ineffective from start to finish. These bombings, while serving as a deterrent, had no substantive impact, as the real state leadership had long since gone into hiding in other regions to direct operations. No one was foolish enough to wait in place for the Galactic Empire to bomb them.
However, Cen Yemeng had his own intelligence network on the Refugee Star.
According to the intelligence, many important figures of the Refugee Star had been located.
Over a dozen governors and generals of the Refugee Star were subjected to targeted elimination. Similarly, over a thousand high-ranking officers of the Refugee Star resistance forces were also eliminated.
The decapitation strikes were not carried out by the Jiang Ye Star Air Force or the Biron Star Air Force. Instead, some Refugee Star Air Force units that had surrendered and defected were instructed to pilot Refugee Star aerospace fighters, roaring into target cities to complete the bombing and firing.
These aerospace fighters had been modified by the space city's military factories, making them faster and more maneuverable. Their surface coatings were changed to a dark green, and the missiles they carried also had green exhaust trails when launched.
Many civilians on the Refugee Star opened their windows to see streaks of green light whistling overhead at extreme speeds. Occasionally, an explosion would rock a city block, shattering the windows of nearby residences and causing birds in the trees to fall from their nests in fright, leaving the roads littered with broken bird eggs.
The Governor of Justinian State was hiding and working in the cellar of a winery. The winery was leveled by bombs. Nearby troops rushed to the scene to rescue, and after digging through the rubble, they found the governor had died from shock, with blood flowing from his seven orifices, his false teeth dislodged and fallen into his lap.
The Governor of Shuidai State had set up his office on the rooftop of a skyscraper in the bustling city center, likely intending to use the Galactic Empire's policy of not harming civilians to protect himself within the urban area.