Chapter 212: Divide-and-Conquer Tactics

Words : 1563 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

The fierce battle raged on. Unlike the chaotic disarray of the Molian Civilization, Xiao Yu’s massive fleet, under the precise control of his computational power, moved with seamless coordination and flawless discipline. This meant that his fleet could operate at full capacity, even surpassing its usual combat effectiveness. In contrast, the Molian Civilization’s fleet clearly lacked such cohesion. They seemed to be too reliant on the support of ground-based facilities and space fortresses. Now that those had been disabled, they struggled with both offensive and defensive maneuvers, and coordination errors were mounting. It was precisely due to these tactical errors that Xiao Yu had been able to isolate and divide the Molian fleet, cutting off their mutual support. Were these ships allowed to cluster into a solid formation, Xiao Yu truly would have had no good method to break them. After destroying the Molian City-Class ship and wiping clean the satellite, the strike force under Xiao Yu’s command swiftly withdrew and dispersed to reinforce other fronts across the battlefield. Centered around the massive gas giant, the battlefront spanned a diameter of several hundred million kilometers. Within this enormous theater of war, fleets from both sides were locked in deadly combat. While the details of the fighting were a chaotic blur, pursuing ships, weapons fire, explosions. On a macro level, certain patterns began to emerge. Specifically, Xiao Yu was working hard to scatter the Molian ships, preventing them from regrouping. This was the essence of his tactic: only through division could he fully exploit his numerical advantage and force the Molian ships into a position where their combat effectiveness would be severely diminished. “You ignorant Predator Civilization! Do you truly intend to defile the dignity of a Level 5 Civilization? On behalf of the Molian Civilization, I swear this, if you refuse to retreat, we will annihilate you! We will hunt you to the edge of the universe and wipe you from existence!” In the middle of the battle, Xiao Yu received a furious message filled with righteous indignation. “At this point, you still want to say that? Isn’t it a bit too late?” Xiao Yu sneered, dismissing the message outright. “If you’d just let my fleet leave at the start, would I have taken the risk to start this war?” The Molian side followed up with a second broadcast. “On behalf of the Molian Civilization, we hereby offer a bounty! To all civilizations at the edge of the battlefield, if you join the fight and assist us in eliminating this despicable Predator Civilization, we will reward you handsomely! Be it technology or resources, we will fulfill any request!” After that broadcast, Xiao Yu noticed movement among the fleets loitering at the battlefield’s edges. They began to subtly shift their formations. Xiao Yu immediately grew alert. “They’re hesitating... unsure whether or not to enter the fight.” In truth, those ships had fled early on but still lingered nearby, watching from the fringes. Xiao Yu had long since noticed them and maintained a certain level of vigilance. He also understood their mentality perfectly. They were simply waiting, for the battle’s outcome to become clear. Ideally, both sides would be badly damaged, and they could swoop in to scavenge the remains. “I’ll deal with them after the Molian Civilization is destroyed. But if they intervene now, they could become a real problem,” Xiao Yu thought, and quickly issued a broadcast of his own. “To the civilizations at the edge of the battlefield, don’t be fooled by the Molian Civilization’s lies! I only need five more days to completely wipe out their fleet. When that moment comes, the spoils will be ours to enjoy! All the resources, lifeforms, and technologies stored here, take whatever you want, as you please! You know exactly what the right choice is!” The fleets of the other civilizations were still shifting and adjusting formations, but none had entered the battle. This brought a small measure of relief to Xiao Yu’s heart. Within the battlefield, the fierce combat continued unabated. Xiao Yu’s divide-and-conquer strategy was proving extremely effective. The Molian fleet was being fragmented by his tactics, unable to support one another, their formation growing looser with each passing moment. Under such sustained pressure, the Molian fleet, originally numbering ten thousand ships, had already been whittled down to fewer than three thousand. On Xiao Yu’s side, he had lost more than ninety thousand ships. However, every single one of those losses was below the County-Class. Not a single County-Class or larger ship had been destroyed, thanks to the four-dimensional shields. This outcome stemmed from two key reasons: one, the four-dimensional shields were indeed powerful; and two, Xiao Yu had deliberately prioritized protecting his larger ships. On the battlefield, whenever a large ship was in imminent danger of destruction, Xiao Yu would immediately pull it out of combat without hesitation, even if it meant sacrificing ten or a hundred smaller ships to cover the retreat. Ships could be rebuilt. But if he lost a four-dimensional shield, there was no way to replace it, Xiao Yu had no means of manufacturing them. It was through this strategy of sacrificing the small to protect the large that he had achieved what seemed like a miracle. Among the three thousand Molian ships remaining, most were large warships. But now they had been completely scattered by Xiao Yu, fighting isolated battles on their own, unable to regroup. This situation played entirely to Xiao Yu’s advantage. With the enemy ships fragmented, there was no possibility for them to coordinate tactics. Meanwhile, Xiao Yu’s fleet could operate with tight coordination, maximizing their collective combat strength. Xiao Yu decisively divided his own forces into 3,000 battle groups. Each group’s combat power was adjusted according to the strength of the targeted Molian ship, and every group locked into direct engagement. And so, across this battlefield spanning billions of kilometers in diameter, a remarkable pattern emerged. The massive warzone was now split into over 3,000 micro-battlefields. In each one, from a few dozen to up to 100,000 ships were locked in furious combat. In each of these pockets, the destruction of a Molian ship meant that at least several dozen of Xiao Yu’s own ships would be freed up to reinforce other battles or rotate into reserve. Severely damaged vessels would withdraw to the rear for repairs. As time went on, Xiao Yu’s combat power was steadily increasing. Of course, in this vast array of battles, there were still cases where entire units of Xiao Yu’s fleet were wiped out, and not a few of them. Often, a single Molian County-Class ship could destroy over a hundred of Xiao Yu’s small ships, and even seriously damage several of his County and City-Class vessels. Whenever that happened, Xiao Yu would immediately dispatch reinforcements from the reserve forces to re-engage the enemy. Damaged capital ships would be pulled out of the front lines and sent to the rear for recovery. Xiao Yu had brought a massive logistical force with him. This included tens of thousands of large dockyard ships, supply vessels, and countless repair robots working tirelessly. They were the battlefield’s surgeons, damaged warships could be quickly ‘healed’ here. Under Xiao Yu’s unified command, everything operated with extreme precision and efficiency. One could say the entire battlefield was under his complete control. This was the terrifying capability of a human soul empowered by vast computational ability. Once again, Xiao Yu exemplified the words ‘precision’ and ‘efficiency’ to their fullest extent. In fact, if his fleet had been handed over to a regular intelligent race, it was questionable whether they could have even resisted the Molian assault, much less suppress and push them back the way Xiao Yu had. With the current momentum on the battlefield, the total annihilation of the Molian fleet was only a matter of time. Out of the original 3,000 micro-battlefields, only about 2,500 remained. Among them, the largest was undoubtedly the one encircling the Molian flagship. In this pocket alone, Xiao Yu had deployed over 100,000 ships. The Molian side had only one vessel. At first, only small ships had been sent to wear it down. But Xiao Yu soon realized that wasn’t going to work. The flagship was simply too formidable. Shaped roughly like a rectangular prism and stretching several kilometers long, the Molian flagship boasted both overwhelming defensive capabilities and devastating offensive power. It was equipped with three ultra-massive energy cannons. Each blast could destroy dozens of Xiao Yu’s small ships. On one occasion, after obliterating 57 of his small vessels, a single shot from one of those cannons even struck another nearby battlefield, crippling a City-Class ship and nearly shattering its four-dimensional shield. And those were just the main weapons, its arsenal held far more beyond that. “If I could capture it, that would be ideal,” Xiao Yu thought. “There must be at least 50,000 intelligent lifeforms operating that ship, not to mention all the technology and resources onboard. Capturing it could give my civilization a massive technological leap.” “Worth a try...” he mused, and began quietly adjusting the composition of the forces surrounding the flagship. The Hebei, Henan, Chongqing, and Tianjin, four Province-Class ships now joined the battlefield, accompanied by fifty City-Class vessels and several thousand County-Class ships.

Chapter 212: Divide-and-Conquer Tactics

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