Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng answered the phone simultaneously.
"Reporting to you two leaders, I just received an urgent report from the troops," Che Zhen said, his voice panicked. "The cities surrounded by the refugee star erupted into civil war fifteen minutes ago!"
"They're fighting themselves?" Cen Yemeng asked in surprise.
"Yes! Based on the intelligence we have, they've split into a surrender faction and a royalist faction, and are now engaged in street fighting, a total mess! All important strongholds are exchanging fire, and the city streets are filled with fortifications and armored vehicles, clearly visible from the satellite!" Che Zhen said.
"Cut off their signals, and issue a notice in the name of the Galactic Empire Allied Forces, demanding that the royalists immediately lay down their arms and surrender, otherwise they will be attacked by our army," Cen Yemeng said. "Contact the surrender faction and provide them with as much support as possible, including missile launches and airborne mechanized infantry units."
"Yes!"
"Jiang Ye and I will be there soon. Report any new developments immediately," Cen Yemeng said.
"Prepare more personnel to rescue refugees and demand that the warring parties open green channels for refugee escape," Jiang Ye added. "We have preliminary plans for this. Proceed with it, and relevant authorization will be given to you shortly."
"Yes!" Che Zhen replied crisply.
The call ended.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng put back on the clothes they had just taken off, hurried out, and took a special car straight to the star station.
On the way, someone notified the star station's jump ships to prepare for departure so that they could take off immediately after the commander and his wife arrived.
...
36 hours later.
Cen Yemeng and Jiang Ye arrived at the space city command center.
The couple hadn't slept the entire way, relying on continuous medication and injections to stay alert, receiving troop information, and frequently issuing orders to coordinate frontline combat.
A lot had happened in this short day and a half.
Two and a half green channels for refugee evacuation had been successfully opened, located in the eastern suburbs of Qizuo City, the eastern suburbs of Gukou City, and the southern suburbs of Erhuang City.
The reason for saying two and a half was that only refugees from the first two green channels had been safely evacuated.
The last green channel had been repeatedly attacked by the royalists, including anti-personnel missiles, mortars, long-range snipers, and even suicide bombers, killing and injuring many fleeing refugees. Currently, there were almost no refugees coming out of this green channel. The roads along the way were also blocked by layers of corpses and burnt-out vehicles.
After a day and a half of emergency evacuation, a total of 90,000 refugees had entered the resettlement camps.
But there were still at least eight million seven hundred thousand people within the combat zones!
The vast majority of them were trapped in the war zones, and a considerable proportion of these people were still fighting fiercely with weapons. The war had reached this stage, and the line between civilians and soldiers had become extremely blurred. Ordinary people who picked up guns became soldiers, and soldiers who put down guns became refugees.
Several intelligence officers had gone missing, likely killed after their identities were exposed, which led to Cen Yemeng's intelligence system making numerous incorrect judgments about the current situation.
Sixteen refugee star armies had declared their participation in the war within the combat zones, including five surrender faction armies and eleven royalist faction armies. There were also many independent forces without equipment to declare war, moving like ghosts, rapidly infiltrating cities and the countryside, eliminating enemies of different factions.
The royalists' slogan was direct: "Defend Leader Zhicun, Long Live the Independence of the Refugee Star!"
The surrender faction's slogan was even more direct: "Kill Zhicun, Eternal Peace!"
The slogans of both sides were clear, and the refugee star armies in the current combat zones all knew that the real Zhicun Rintaro was still directing the battle from the rear.
However, as the situation changed, facing their former leader, some armies chose to remain loyal out of righteousness, while others chose to surrender to the Galactic Empire out of righteousness. Both sides believed they were acting in accordance with righteousness, and the fighting was exceptionally fierce.
The surrender faction, being fewer in number and having inferior equipment, suffered greatly at the beginning of the war, almost being annihilated by the royalists.
But soon, the surrender faction managed to contact the Galactic Empire Allied Forces.
Within a few hours, the surrender faction armies changed their tactics. They abandoned important strongholds they had previously held, such as airports, star stations, subway stations, and train stations, and retreated to safe zones.
While retreating, they sent the coordinates of the abandoned strongholds to the Galactic Empire Allied Forces, who then carried out high-intensity air strikes based on the received coordinates.
After the air strikes, the royalist troops on the ground were decimated, and the surrender faction would then return to occupy the strongholds.
This tactic of retreating and borrowing strength allowed the surrender faction to begin turning the tide, and the casualties of the royalist troops soared.
In just 36 hours, the Birong Star forces launched 714 armor-piercing missiles and 1200 anti-armor missiles. The Jiang Ye Star forces dispatched 12 bomber formations, dropping 400 high-explosive bombs, 2100 prohibited weapons such as white phosphorus bombs and light stream bombs, and 3000 cluster bombs and steel ball bombs.
The use of prohibited weapons was a response to the royalists' use of prohibited weapons.
According to the battlefield videos transmitted by the surrender faction, the royalists had fired a large number of bacterial shells and gas shells. Green and orange smoke filled some combat areas, and streets were covered with a layer of pink powder. The cities were covered in various brilliant and eerie colors, appearing like a gorgeous nightmare under the glare of raging fires.
Especially the corpses covered in thick pink powder on the battlefield, which produced a terrifying effect, like bloody pastries sprinkled with frosting.
Many surrender faction soldiers, not wearing protective masks, could only tear gauze, soak it in urine, and cover their mouths and noses when the gas attacked. However, this crude method was useless. The gauze was quickly stained red with blood, and the soldiers who were transferred would vomit blood and collapse as they walked.
Some poisoned soldiers dug pits, poured water into them to make mud, and buried their heads in the mud in an attempt to escape the acrid gas, only to suffocate to death. Large areas of corpses with their heads buried in the mud, fingers dug deeply into the soil, fingernails broken and bleeding, were found in the suburbs of four cities, in extremely tragic states.
The accompanying military doctors had no medicine for treatment and could only try to transfer the severely wounded to the rear to be handed over to the Galactic Empire's military doctors. If the frontline was too deep to transfer, they would give the severely wounded a pistol and let them end their own lives.
In the combat zones, a large number of civilians inhaled the gas in their homes and died with their respiratory tracts ulcerated, in extreme pain.
When soldiers from both sides entered urban buildings to set up weapons, they witnessed civilian corpses hanging in the rooms. Many residents rushed out of their homes, shouting and running wildly in the streets, only hoping for a stray bullet to end their suffering.
Upon receiving the battlefield videos submitted by the surrender faction, Cen Yemeng immediately submitted them to the Galactic Empire.
The Galactic Empire military quickly announced: The royalist armed forces of the refugee star are extreme terrorists who have committed more than thirty crimes, including crimes against humanity and heinous war crimes, and will face post-war trials. Royalist prisoners will not be protected by the "Galactic Empire Convention on the Humane Treatment of Prisoners."
The Galactic Empire military's intention was clear: these people were extremely wicked and could all be killed!
48 hours after the start of the war, the Jiang Ye Star forces airdropped 100,000 mechanical soldiers into the battlefield at night.
The skies above the major cities were covered with parachute flowers, and countless ground fire was directed upwards. In the thick night, the sky was filled with flying tracer rounds, resembling dense flying insects by a pond in summer, or a dandelion prairie blown by a strong wind.
These mechanical soldiers followed an eight-two split: twenty percent directly joined the surrender faction soldiers and advanced into combat. Eighty percent were busy rescuing civilians and the wounded, and opening more green channels for refugee evacuation.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng's division of labor was also very clear:
Jiang Ye was responsible for commanding the rescue forces to rescue civilians from the war zones.
Cen Yemeng was responsible for mobilizing military forces for a fierce offensive.