The observers aboard the Salbar Ironclaw were also quite relaxed, never imagining that the enemy from the opposite star system would launch an attack.

This was understandable; until today, they had all believed this was just an exercise, no different from any other in the Past twenty years.

But now, war had truly broken out. They were excited, thrilled, eager, and filled with fantasies. They felt fear and tension, but they completely forgot about vigilance.

As observers on the flagship, they also received a grand meal: meat, eggs, soup, sweets, and even alcohol, with each person getting two catnip sticks. It was a long-awaited feast, and they were all full and overjoyed, chewing on catnip while fantasizing about the future. This was a rare moment of leisure before a major battle.

We must understand their laxity at this time.

After all, the Kaitai Kingdom had been practicing military-first politics for many years. The scale of military expansion and construction had long exceeded their economic limits, and the people's livelihood was naturally greatly affected.

Not to mention the common people, even these naval soldiers, who held well-paying technical positions on ships, found their food standards truly unspeakable. Now, with a rare good meal, even if it had the suspicion of being a "last meal," shouldn't they eat it first?

Of course, the standards for the warrior nobles could not be lowered. After all, they were the foundation for the Kaitai people, a warrior race, to establish themselves in the Milky Way Civilization circle. It was essential to ensure they "had ample physical and mental state to deal with the most dangerous situations." Thus, the warrior class could enjoy imperial court cuisine every meal, while the common soldiers could only chew on salted fish cans and synthetic meat dough... However, the Kaitai people themselves didn't see any problem with it, so there's no need for us to worry about the ancients.

In short, the observers on the Ironclaw had already started dozing off, making "snoring" sounds. It wasn't until the alarm bell had rung several times that they slowly connected to the signal, yawning and grumbling, "What's all the noise about, meow... Ugh, what now? Did those two fleets start fighting? Or are the half-human slave soldiers trying to get themselves killed again?"

"Attack? What attack are you talking about? Did the slave soldiers revolt? If they revolted, let your own captain and overseer handle it! Don't push everything to Command HQ, alright?"

Before their words had even finished, a series of bright flashes suddenly erupted outside the bridge's transparent window. The blinding, brilliant light made it almost impossible for the soldiers to open their eyes. One fellow, who usually boasted about his excellent eyesight, claiming he could see a mouse's whiskers a kilometer away, even covered his eyes and wailed.

It took nearly half a minute for someone to finally react, realizing that the white light was clearly the effect of proton torpedo explosions. They frantically rushed to sound the alarm. But before they could make these moves, the entire Kaitai fleet had already endured the first wave of 300 proton torpedoes.

"We've been attacked!" By this point, the Kaitai officers finally realized this, but what followed was naturally anger and confusion.

"Where's our alert fleet? Where's our alert fleet? Why weren't we notified?"

They certainly didn't know that the three planned patrol and alert fleets had already been recalled to the main fleet's formation, and it was precisely this gap that gave the enemy an opportunity.

Yang Xiyi's tactics were clear: strike the enemy severely before they could react. The first to warp in and appear in the Xiwei Star System where the enemy fleet was located was a fast strike fleet composed of 20 County-class light cruisers and 64 Nile-class destroyers.

When they discovered that there was no enemy to intercept them, they happily pushed their sub-light engines to the maximum, even opening their solar sails for acceleration. Under the cover of the greenish-white sunlight of the local star system, they rapidly approached the enemy fleet and launched 300 proton torpedoes in a single volley.

These solar flare-type proton torpedoes, infused with high-explosive dust, whistled as they slammed into the unprepared outer perimeter of the enemy fleet, beginning their explosions. In just that single explosive instant, over 40 Kaitai warships were damaged, with one heavy cruiser being particularly unlucky, taking a torpedo directly to its face. The explosion instantly destroyed the bridge and the front of the ship, then ignited the ammunition depot. Minutes later, this behemoth weighing hundreds of thousands of tons turned into a cloud of cosmic dust on the spot.

The light cruisers and destroyers knew when to quit; they attacked and then fled. This was also the plan Yang Xiyi had formulated from the beginning: never allow entanglement, attack one round and then run.

Sure enough, as they turned to escape, seven or eight cruisers also left the main enemy fleet and pursued them with gritted teeth. They were clearly a hastily formed group, probably due to the captain's quick decision-making. They were truly a decisive and loyal group of people.

However, as soon as they left the main fleet, they were directly intercepted by the second wave of strike fleets that had warped in.

That was a mighty force composed of twelve large Armory Ships, twenty heavy cruisers, and sixty Guardian Ships.

In this universe, a Guardian Ship does not refer to a type of ship smaller than a destroyer, but rather a large to medium-sized vessel. While somewhat ponderous in movement, it carries heavy armor and large shield generators, as well as quite good support firepower. On the battlefield, it is used to protect Aircraft Carriers and Armory Ships, these firepower platforms, on the front lines.

Hmm, to avoid confusion for the observer lords from outside the Grand Universe in the future, let's just call them "Guardian Ships" from now on.

In short, the sixty Guardian Ships were the first to deploy their shields, forming a wall of arc light in front of their own projection forces, much like Heavy Infantry raising their large shields in front of their own assault troops.

The twenty heavy cruisers, meanwhile, began to accelerate, bypassing the formation before the shields were fully formed, and unleashed a barrage of main gun salvos directly at the Kaitai cruisers, which had not even organized their formation yet.

Dozens of red laser beams sliced through the sky, immediately cutting through the shields and armor of three cruisers, causing them to fall into continuous internal explosions.

The cruiser melee began, but the situation was one-sided.

However, they were not destined to be the protagonists. Because at that moment, twelve large Armory Ships, each weighing over a million tons, simultaneously unleashed over ten thousand anti-ship missiles, penetrating the chaotic enemy fleet. The shockwaves of light and heat spread, as if countless small suns had exploded in an instant, immediately engulfing all enemy fleets in blinding light, making it impossible to see clearly for a time.

Immediately following, warping in from another direction was the third wave of strike fleets, composed of ten large Aircraft Carriers and ten Armory Ships. After conducting a saturation bombardment of perfect missiles, the latter then carried out three rounds of orbital cannon salvos.

This time, the Kaitai fleet finally reacted, and many large and medium-sized ships managed to deploy their shields, so the damage they sustained was not significant. However, for the smaller ships with relatively weak shields and armor, the situation was predictable.

Almost simultaneously, fighter jets launched from the ten Aircraft Carriers swarmed in, suffering almost no losses. They swiftly swept Past the heavily damaged enemy light ship groups, easily crushing the hastily launched enemy fighters, and then penetrated their cumbersome main fleet, causing utter chaos.

The chaos of the Kait Kaitai United Fleet began to expand step by step.

So far, the results of the surprise attack were almost perfect, and only half an hour had passed since the official start of the battle. This was certainly due to Yang Xiyi's flawlessly devised plan, and General Paris's policy of working tirelessly seven days a week had also achieved great success. Regardless of whether the officers and soldiers of the Outer Rim fleet complained, they were indeed the only force in the Commonwealth that could be considered elite and powerful.

Of course, if the enemy's surveillance and alert fleet had been continuously patrolling, even if the surprise attack had succeeded, it wouldn't have had such an effect.

"So, if I had known the Kaitai people were really this overconfident, I wouldn't have spent that extra half hour devising a backup plan." Yang Xiyi looked at Yu Lian curiously: "So, how did you determine they would withdraw their alert fleet?"

Of course, it was because history, which would happen a year later... No, history that would definitely not happen a year later, told me.

"The Red-Eyed Marshal commanding the opposing fleet. He is inherently a famous general who takes great gambles and is skilled in strategy. Since he decided to do it, he would see it through and would find every possible way to create the most perfect surprise attack. They gather a large fleet for an exercise, and our side also gathers a fleet to monitor and confront them. When the exercise ends, the other side will first withdraw their outer patrol and alert fleets, and our side will correspondingly remove our alert network and disband our fleet. If a surprise attack were launched at that time, it would inflict a huge blow on us, leaving us no time to retaliate. Since that's the case, why don't we turn their scheme against them?"

"So, you're betting he'll follow your line of thinking?"

"Yes, I'm betting. Anyway, even if we lose, it won't have much impact, and the problem isn't big. Teacher Yang, didn't you also formulate a corresponding B plan? If the enemy's alert fleet wasn't withdrawn, then after the first batch of destroyers completed their warp, they wouldn't immediately launch an attack. Instead, they would swagger around in front of the enemy, showing off, and then warp back..."

"Yes! But, here's the question, why did I formulate such a B plan?" Yang Xiyi said with interest, just like when he used to ask questions in the academy classroom.

"This is to show Marshal Red-Eyed that our side is already fully prepared. He is a gambler, but not a madman or a fool. And precisely because he is a gambler, he will be suspicious. Seeing our side already arrayed, he might abandon the surprise attack plan, and even if Charlen Crimson Mane arrives, he will persuade the latter to give up... Even if it's just a period of hesitation and dispute, it will buy us time for reinforcements."

At this point, Yu Lian also had to admit that famous people were indeed famous. The "Fox of the Outer Rim" was truly meticulous in his actions; calling him the "Turtle of the Outer Rim" would be more accurate.

"Anyway, the worst outcome is simply that everyone spreads out and fights a tough battle. Even if it comes to that, our side still holds the absolute initiative! Haven't you already put all the work ships on standby, just waiting to execute Plan B and scatter mines around the gravity well?"

Yang Xiyi stopped, pondered for a moment, and then suddenly said, "Yu Lian, when you graduate, you should use this battle as the subject for your graduation thesis."

"Ah? Teacher Yang, your topic jumped a bit too quickly, didn't it?"

Yang Xiyi ignored him and said to Colonel Chaimen, who was leading the way and listening in awe, "Chaimen, this kid is a treasure of the Commonwealth, far more valuable than that messy prince on the other side. I estimate Commander also thinks so."

Colonel Chaimen said, "Don't worry, Old Yang. Not just you and Commander, I think so too. But since he's a treasure, he needs a grand unveiling ceremony! We need to show the Empire and the Alliance that our young people from Earth also possess such talent! So, Old Diego and I will watch over him! He will be the safest one in our entire fleet! I guarantee it, by the universe spirit and my own life!"

Today is also a happy update beast. Lords, will you support me with your presence, money, and votes?