Chapter 238: This War Was Not Fought in Vain

This could be described as the darkest day in Galan history.

The 100 prisoners of war from the battle two weeks ago, along with the 159 prisoners of war from today's battle, all tremblingly climbed onto their country's “victory” podium, gathering under the spotlight to recount their unforgettable defeat to media reporters.

MacMillan, disheveled and with vacant eyes, walked to the camera.

As the undisputed representative of the prisoners of war, he was the first to give a “defeat lecture.”

“...We truly had no chance to resist at all; everything happened in an instant! We couldn't detect the approach of the Cangyuan warships, and their main cannons only needed one hit to completely shatter us!”

“Was Cangyuan using electromagnetic main cannons?” a reporter on site asked.

MacMillan looked at Qun Qing in fear.

According to the prior arrangements with him, all questions concerning the specific performance of Cangyuan's weapons required prior approval before answering, or his life would be at risk.

Qun Qing nodded slightly.

“Yes! They were heavy electromagnetic cannons!”

“But electromagnetic cannons have obvious disadvantages compared to laser main cannons,” a reporter specializing in military affairs expressed confusion, “projectiles take a lot of time to travel. Didn't you try to intercept them midway? Was it due to insufficient training?”

“No! You layman, it's not at all what you imagine! Cangyuan's warships could approach within 1,000 kilometers without anyone knowing! After we initiated active interference, they even activated warp speed, directly jumping to visual range!”

The reporters were in an uproar.

This kind of fleet tactic, emphasizing close-quarters combat, was only used by the elite forces of the Super Democratic Empire and the Human Exploration Federation.

Until now, most people, especially the professional soldiers on New Hope, still believed that Cangyuan won today by “not playing fair.”

They had stealthily approached the New Hope Space Station before announcing their intentions.

Using this tactic, which could be called a sneak attack, they forced the Galan warships to hastily launch, exposing them to their visual range from the start, and then fired their already fully charged main cannons.

Within a 20-kilometer range, even the best close-in defense lasers or missiles would absolutely not have enough time to defend against projectiles fired by electromagnetic cannons.

The interception time window was too short; the fire control system couldn't even complete tracking and locking.

But now it seemed that everything was not as simple as the “cheap shot” they had imagined.

Cangyuan would also choose ultra-close-range combat in engagement scenarios!

Was this the courage from the golden age?

“Then why didn't you resist? At such close range, couldn't both sides equally bombard each other?”

“That's why I said you're a layman! You don't understand anything!” MacMillan became agitated, his voice almost on the verge of tears, “All our weapons were declared ineffective! Moras Missiles were intercepted, kinetic weapons were blocked by barriers, lasers were reflected! Even the expensive 'thundercloud' fighters were no match!”

Hiss—

At this moment, the New Hope military officers watching the TV program couldn't help but gasp.

Their technology was being crushed! It was fortunate that Station Master MacMillan was calm enough today to lower his stance in time, unlike Prime Minister Nadi, who went berserk.

Otherwise, these two Cangyuan warships would likely dismantle the space station before the main fleet could reinforce, and then, enduring the bombardment, activate their warp engines and swagger away.

Lu Yuan, disguised as security, listened from the side and felt a little like laughing.

MacMillan's statement was somewhat exaggerated; the kinetic shields on the warships actually had an overload limit and were not completely immune to kinetic damage once activated; as for anti-laser coatings, at this stage, they could only target specific frequencies.

The reason MacMillan wanted to portray the “Qinling” class frigates as such a great demon king was, of course, to make his failure seem more reasonable.

It's not that I, MacMillan, am incompetent, but that the enemy is simply too powerful!

But well, let him be.

Next, the surviving captains, technical officers, and sailors spoke in turn according to the content Lu Yuan had prepared in advance, describing the vastly disparate fleet battle from multiple perspectives, while fully restoring Galan's war crimes as the aggressor.

“We were suddenly conscripted and then deployed; the mission was to slaughter those natives who dared to resist, then plunder the spoils, and finally leave the galaxy to Apollo—”

“Before departure, the higher-ups said this battle would be easier than all previous ones, so we were all very excited. But it wasn't like that at all! The battle was a nightmare!”

“—I strictly followed all the commander's orders, operating the system to launch a wave of Moras Missiles and remotely controlling the electromagnetic cannons for a volley. The entire process only took a few minutes, and then everything was over! Can you imagine? Our warship was boarded! We really did everything, but it was useless!”

“The people on the 'White Bull' didn't know what happened until they died. It was shattered in an instant! That was a brand new warship we just bought! So, what could we do—”

“Apollo dragged us down! If they had listened to orders and stayed with us, even if we couldn't beat Cangyuan, we would have had a chance to escape! Prime Minister Nadi, please forgive us; Apollo completely screwed us over!”

In the camera, these Jialan soldiers had absolutely no semblance of soldiers.

Paired with the Jialan civilians squatting on the ground below, bruised and swollen from beatings, the intuitive impression given was two words.

Weak! Alas!

This also made all viewers ponder a question from the bottom of their hearts.

Does the Galan Commonwealth truly deserve to be the Star Alliance's second-largest council member?

Was the power they had previously displayed merely an illusion created through false propaganda and bullying the weak?

Once such suspicion arises, it can only be dispelled by a great victory that defeats a true strong opponent, and this is precisely what Galan cannot achieve at present!

The exchange rate in Sanlan City had already begun to plummet again at this time.

Next, Qun Qing showed no mercy, publicly releasing Prime Minister Nadi's previous plea for peace audio.

His posture of first blustering and attempting to conceal failure, then trying to bargain after realizing the other party wasn't falling for it, further disappointed everyone and made them extremely pessimistic about the future of this faction.

Including those organizations and individuals who had previously supported Galan, they all felt despair.

This was the most severe blow to national credibility.

In the foreign exchange market, the already alarming decline of the Galan currency further free-fell, threatening to break through the floor.

Of course, the more the Galan currency fell, the happier Qun Qing, who had shorted it in advance, became.

At this moment, she sat in front of the computer screen at the branch office, watching the constantly plummeting “straight line” representing the Galan currency, so thrilled that she squealed and stomped her feet.

Finally, Qun Qing, in the name of the Executive Officer, issued today's most significant declaration.

“Cangyuan will provide escort protection for Free Trade Alliance merchant fleets on the route from New Hope to Li Star. In the future, the scope of protection will be further expanded based on this.”

“We sincerely invite all merchant fleets to come and jointly build Li Star into a permanent war haven. We promise to return excess business development dividends to contributing merchant fleets in various ways, including but not limited to selling Star Alliance's top advanced self-defense weapons at preferential prices!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the merchants present were filled with awe.

A wave of applause erupted, lasting for a full five minutes, echoing endlessly.

They left their fleet's contact information on New Hope and promised to help find high-quality suppliers, as well as interstellar construction teams and Engineer clans.

Qun Qing and Ma Lou thanked them one by one.

These merchants, who had been drifting for years and were self-reliant, found it very difficult to trust others.

The reason they applauded from the bottom of their hearts was not because they saw Cangyuan willing to uphold “justice,” or willing to stand on moral high ground to make a show, act as a big brother, or play the saint.

Such self-righteous, overly high-profile emerging powers often do not have very good outcomes.

The reason they admired Cangyuan was that immediate cooperation between the two indeed aligned with their common interests, a very pragmatic choice.

They admired Cangyuan's ability to discover and seize opportunities, and the Executive Officer's courage and ambition.

For these speculative and profit-seeking merchants, these were the true qualities a reliable ally needed to possess.

Later that day, the Galan currency plummeted by 95% of its value.

Qun Qing's short-selling was a great success.

Her method of shorting in the New Hope foreign exchange market was very “old-fashioned.”

First, she contacted Anya privately in Purgatory, and after establishing cooperation, used the secret account she provided for subsequent operations to avoid alarming the market.

Then, while Galan's victory propaganda was still ongoing, Qun Qing, using her 15 billion star alliance credit points as collateral, borrowed a large amount of Galan currency, which was in a good upward trend, from various institutions and individuals in multiple transactions, selling them without hesitation and cashing out 19 billion star alliance credit points.

Now, the Galan currency had fallen to rock bottom.

So she only needed to spend a small amount of capital to buy back all the heavily sold Galan currency, and after closing her positions and returning them to the institutions and individuals who had lent the Galan currency and were now silently eating their losses, she could declare complete success.

After deducting commissions during the short-selling period and Anya's commission, this extremely simple operation brought Cangyuan another massive income of 16 billion credit points!

When Lu Yuan led a group of people into the branch office, this meritorious elder sister rushed over and gave him a big hug.

“Executive Officer, we are really super-rich this time! How did I complete my task? You should praise me~”

“—Excellent, hmm—keep up the good work!”

“Oh my, oh my, our Executive Officer is still so... He was so scary in front of the Jialan people!”

Lu Yuan touched his nose, feeling a little embarrassed by her, and his companions behind him immediately burst into good-natured laughter, with some even making playful noises.

These 16 billion credit points were pure speculative income.

The ones paying the bill were the wealthy individuals who couldn't see the situation clearly and chose to underestimate Cangyuan.

In a sense, it was an intelligence tax; those who gambled lost.

In other words, unlike the hot money that flowed in before, this money could be confidently used for shopping without worrying about triggering domestic economic and financial problems.

Cangyuan's second batch of purchases had not yet been shipped, and the third batch could already start browsing shelves and buying, buying, buying.

The door to external exchanges and cooperation was open, and trade routes were connected.

After solving the issues of manpower and logistics, the pressure of construction would naturally fall on the Scholars and Engineers back home.