"But many places have secret affections between men and women, and they give birth to children," Cen Yemeng continued.
"To allow these children to survive, many parents left their cities and original villages and entered the dense forests to try to survive. These people gathered more and more, developing into the Yellow Turban Army. Our intelligence officer Wei Yangnan entered the Yellow Turban Army's base camp as soon as he landed. He was out of contact for several days, and we thought he had been captured. Now he has finally sent back a message."
"Wei Yangnan reported that the number of people in the Yellow Turban Army is extremely large. In the mountainous area where he is located alone, there are sixty thousand armed troops, and as many as 280,000 infants. Some of these infants are born to the male and female soldiers of the Yellow Turban Army, and some are sent from nearby city residents after giving birth at home. Currently, the Yellow Turban Army lacks infant medical care, medicine, and milk powder. Wei Yangnan has already met the second-in-command of the local Yellow Turban Army, and the other party already knows that we are about to attack."
The atmosphere in the conference room immediately became tense.
Up to this point, Cen Yemeng's military movements had not been disclosed to the Refugee Star, with no declaration of war or any outward news released. Therefore, these were the first refugees to know that a major war was imminent.
"The attitude of the local Yellow Turban Army high command is that as long as our occupation of the Refugee Star does not involve excessive killing, and we do not impose high-pressure rule on the local people after occupation, the Yellow Turban Army can cooperate with our military activities. All they want is for the children to survive," Cen Yemeng said.
The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly changed, and many officers smiled.
"Currently, the Yellow Turban Army lacks supplies related to infants and young children because the number of illegitimate children in the cities has been extremely high recently," Cen Yemeng said. "We are trying to provide a batch of infant milk powder, medicine, clothing, and so on to the Yellow Turban Army. We are also providing food and weapons, which are things the Yellow Turban Army is currently short of."
"We can formulate our preliminary combat plan," Cen Yemeng said. "First, we will comprehensively strike the Refugee Star's missile systems and air force, as well as its visible military bases. With our current strength, we can eliminate more than ninety percent of the Refugee Star's air force in a few hours at most. If we accelerate preparations, the speed will be even faster."
"Next, we will deal with the ground forces. The Refugee Star is a highly militarized planet. Every city has city defense forces, as well as several secret military bases, built underground or in disguised factories. I suggest using the Yellow Turban Army to locate the enemy, and we will conduct long-range bombing from space. This will be an efficient, fast, and safe way to eliminate the Refugee Star's ground forces."
"The last stage will be airborne occupation, first controlling the major cities of the Refugee Star, meeting up with the Yellow Turban Army, and then controlling the countryside, clearing out the remaining resistance elements, and renaming the Refugee Star."
After Cen Yemeng finished speaking, the officers began to speak.
Although the general direction had been set, the matter was still very complicated.
For example, before the military forces were fully deployed and before contact was fully established with the scattered Yellow Turban Army in various regions, it was necessary to temporarily conceal the military intentions. And the airdropped supplies might be detected by the Refugee Star.
Furthermore, the Refugee Star had implemented a century-long education of universal conscription. Once the war began, billions of militiamen would be mobilized and issued weapons to resist. How would they be handled then? Would there be a large-scale bloody suppression?
There was also the issue of whether the Yellow Turban Army would have traitors leaking information. If a small soldier from the Yellow Turban Army ran out to report, the Refugee Star would quickly activate its combat readiness. In that case, should they attack immediately, negotiate to delay time, or wait for future opportunities?
After the war, there would also be many problems. A centipede dies but remains stiff; how to deal with the remaining resistance forces? What to do if some members of the Yellow Turban Army wanted to seize power? What to do with the large number of identical people on the entire planet?
This meeting was unprecedentedly long, lasting for a full eight and a half hours before ending.
Moreover, at the end of the meeting, there were even more questions than at the beginning. Everyone's mood was good when the meeting started, but the more they discussed, the uglier everyone's expression became. Endless problems were discovered from blind spots, and each major problem was accompanied by a large number of minor problems, many of which were almost completely unknown.
Jiang Ye felt overwhelmed.
Although he already controlled two planets, he had never fought a war like this on the Refugee Star.
Jiang Ye Star was conquered without much fighting, and Bi Rong Star was an exploration process similar to a sandbox game, without even a single death. The Refugee Star, however, could foresee large-scale bloodshed.
It could be said that this was the first time the troops were facing a real test of war.
After the meeting, Cen Yemeng took Jiang Ye to her office.
"Husband, help me," Cen Yemeng hugged him as soon as she closed the door.
"Don't worry," Jiang Ye said.
He immediately took out his phone and started contacting acquaintances.
First, he contacted Li Nannan.
Li Nannan said she was attending an event out of town and could return within 48 hours, bringing a few officers with similar experience to join Cen Yemeng's think tank.
Jiang Ye then contacted the planet leaders of several familiar and powerful planets.
Fortunately, none of these people failed him. They said they would rush to Jiang Ye Star or Bi Rong Star as soon as possible to meet with Jiang Ye.
Finally, Jiang Ye contacted the troops of Jiang Ye Star and Bi Rong Star, instructing them to prepare, all soldiers on leave to return to their posts, and to be ready for any reinforcement for a major war in the near future. This notice had actually been given two weeks ago. The troops of both planets had just purchased a large batch of new equipment and had all old equipment inspected, ready to be deployed at any time.
"I'm a little nervous," Cen Yemeng said.
She looked up and met her husband's gaze.
Jiang Ye had never seen such an expression on her face, dark and crystalline, like water in an ancient well, where one could not see what lay beneath.
"There's nothing to be nervous about," Jiang Ye said.
"Help me relax," Cen Yemeng said.
Jiang Ye sighed, "Is my only role to help you relax?"
"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up," Cen Yemeng whispered, reaching out and tapping twice on the desk. The door lock automatically engaged, and the curtains instantly closed.
...
Jiang Ye stayed in the space city for three days, attending various meetings and helping with various tasks.
The first batch of supplies prepared for airdrop to the Yellow Turban Army was ready, including a large number of infantry weapons, communication equipment, infant supplies, artificial blood, military medical pods, and so on, all piled up in the warehouses of the space city.
More supplies were bombs. The military factories in the space city were operating at full capacity to produce all types of bombs and missiles, some for bombing large military targets, some for bombing underground targets, and some for bombing small enemy groups.
Jiang Ye knew very clearly that all these things were extremely expensive, as they were all produced with his money.
Three days later, Jiang Ye returned to Bi Rong Star and met with the first batch of arriving planetary leaders.
There were many planetary leaders this time, many of whom were old acquaintances, and some he had only recently befriended.