There Is No Fixed Pattern in Warfare

"Commander Yue, they're here!" the Second Mate said excitedly.

After waiting a year, these guys finally fell for it. They were really cautious.

As he spoke, he turned his gaze to the external display screen. From the perspective of the Lyra's Command Center, a dazzling expanse of silver light stretched as far as the eye could see—warships filling every field of view. Of course, these weren't enemy warships, but rather a portion of humanity's own First Fleet.

The warships are not visible to the naked eye, which are more than ten light-seconds away.

"Wait a little longer!" Yue Yuan's eyes never left the star map. He stared at the three warships approaching at an extremely fast speed, while using the Auxiliary Chip in his mind to calculate the speed, distance, acceleration and other parameters of the three fleets.

Although the enemy had a numerical advantage in warships, they did not gain much of an advantage in a year of long-range combat. Humans had deliberately followed their tactical rhythm and intentionally presented a situation where their primary forces could not support each other, which is why they achieved a 3 to 1 kill ratio.

If things continue like this, they will be unable to destroy the First Fleet, so launching a surprise attack and engaging in close combat is only a matter of time.

Yue Yuan was also waiting for this opportunity, and now that the opportunity had arrived, he was not content with merely defeating the fleet, but rather wanted to annihilate it as completely as possible. Therefore, he wanted to wait until the enemy's three fleets got closer, to the point where they had no choice but to turn around and escape midway.

After a year of long-range combat, the Interstellar Transaction Market side has lost over 1.1 million warships, while the human side has suffered losses of only around 300,000. Even if forced into close combat, as long as humanity can maintain its previous attrition ratio, defeating the enemy will still be more than possible.

Yue Yuan believed that the Interstellar Transaction Market must also understand this, which is why they sought an opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the Lyra. But it wasn't that easy.

After a short while, Yue Yuan, staring at the star map, said decisively, "Now! The original command of the warship group will be given to the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea. Order them to immediately change formation and launch a surprise attack, targeting the enemy's Second Sub-Fleet."

At a command, the human First Fleet, which was originally in a spherical formation, immediately changed. Two-thirds of the warships that were originally facing the same direction immediately increased their thrust to the maximum and accelerated toward the enemy's Second Sub-Fleet.

Meanwhile, the Lyra fleet, which controlled one-third of the warships, accelerated towards the enemy's First Sub-Fleet without changing its posture.

Of course, the approach is not to meet them head-on, but to create an angle with their direction of advance. The purpose is self-evident: to avoid close-quarters combat.

As for the enemy's Third Sub-Fleet, Yue Yuan chose to ignore it for the time being and instead use the distance difference to allow the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea warship groups to use their superior firepower to defeat the enemy's Second Sub-Fleet.

He had calculated that since the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea fleets were accelerating with their backs to the enemy's third fleet detachment, there was approximately a one-hour time difference between the two fleets. The two fleets together had about 3.6 million warships, while the enemy's Second Sub-Fleet had only 4.2 million ships.

When the numbers are roughly equal, humanity can gain an absolute advantage. In order to defeat the enemy's Second Fleet in a short time, the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea fleets will abandon the previous multi-ship formation salvo attack mode and instead switch to a precise one-on-one combat mode where each ship seeks out another.

While this mode makes it difficult to destroy an enemy warship with a single salvo, it allows for the elimination of more warships within a limited time, albeit at the cost of close-quarters combat.

Therefore, the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea warship groups are different from the Lyra; they are really heading towards the enemy's Second Sub-Fleet.

Yue Yuan had made up his mind that even if he lost two ships for one enemy ship in close combat, he would annihilate the enemy's Second Fleet. Of course, this was only the worst-case scenario in the simulation; in reality, when numbers were similar, human warships might not necessarily be at a disadvantage in close combat.

That is indeed the case.

When the human fleet split into three, the Interstellar Transaction Market side visibly panicked, as they hadn't expected that the human fleet would have more than one Strong Artificial Intelligence.

"Great Commander, we've been fooled by Earth civilization! They... they have two powerful Artificial Intelligence in this fleet! Their previous actions were all an illusion, all an illusion!" An anxious voice rang out from the Crimson Flame Civilization's First Sub-Fleet upon seeing the movements of the human fleet.

"No, it's three Strong Artificial Intelligence! The fleet that was charging towards our Second Sub-Fleet has split up again and is now attacking the flanks of our Second Sub-Fleet. Damn it, that insidious Earth civilization, quickly send a message to the support fleet and tell them to change course and accelerate towards us!" the Great Commander said.

The support fleet he mentioned is what humans call the Third Sub-Fleet.

A voice exclaimed in astonishment, "But Great Commander, are you abandoning the Second Sub-Fleet?"

The Great Commander declared in an unquestionable voice, "They will live forever, and our Crimson Flame Civilization will forever remember their contributions."

After a pause, the Great Commander of the Crimson Flame Civilization spoke again, "Since the Earth Civilization is determined to annihilate our Second Sub-Fleet, then let them go. We must admit that they are different from any civilization we have encountered before. Their art of war is more advanced than any civilization we thought we would encounter, but that's all they are."

They thought I would send the support fleet to aid the Second Sub-Fleet, but I won't do that. I want to see how their fleet copes with a pincer attack from both of our fleets!

Notify all warship captains that the fleet will spread out in all directions in groups of fifteen, forcing the enemy into close combat. The warship groups will operate using their own surprise attack tactics, targeting the enemy flagship! I want to see how many of our warships they can destroy before the reinforcement fleet arrives.

"Brave warriors of the Crimson Flame Civilization, it's time to show this despicable Earth civilization our strength! Rest assured, just hold out for one hour, and the support fleet will arrive immediately. Victory belongs to our Crimson Flame Civilization!"

Encouraged by the Great Commander, waves of fervor surged across the warships.

"Victory belongs to our Crimson Flame Civilization!"

"Victory belongs to our Crimson Flame Civilization!"

The Crimson Flame Civilization's First Fleet, its main fleet, still has 5.8 million warships remaining. As for its support fleet, it suffered fewer losses. It originally had 3 million warships when it arrived at the battlefield, but now it still has 2.87 million.

The reason why its support fleet suffered relatively few losses is naturally because this fleet is a new fleet of the Crimson Flame Civilization, and its armor uses the Alloy No. 1 that humans originally provided.

Humans had naturally discovered this during previous long-range battles, which is why Yue Yuan chose to temporarily avoid this fleet and instead send the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea warships to destroy its second fleet.

The Great Commander of the Crimson Flame Civilization, at the cost of abandoning 4.2 million warships in the Second Sub-Fleet, followed the human tactics and sought to retaliate in kind, aiming to destroy the human Flagship Lyra with superior numbers of warships.

After dividing control of the warships to the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea, the Lyra warship group now only has more than 2.1 million warships.

Yue Yuan's idea was to use these 2.1 million warships to tie down the enemy's main fleet of 5.8 million warships, and after the Donghai (East Sea) Warship and West Sea warship groups annihilated the enemy's Second Sub-Fleet with overwhelming superiority, they would turn their attention to the fleet that came to their aid, which was equipped with No. 1 Alloy Material armor.

However, the battlefield is ever-changing, and the enemy did not always act according to his plans.

As the saying goes, there are no fixed formations in warfare, and no fixed shapes in water.