General Connaris was a technical bureaucrat with little real combat experience or distinction, while Lieutenant General Tivington was a textbook elite academy-trained staff officer. Of course, Yang Xiyi didn't think the two of them were incompetent. Still, they had devised a tactic that was—putting it charitably—highly risky.
Yang Xiyi asked himself honestly: if he were in command, he'd probably gamble too, and put his soldiers' lives on the altar. But the question was how urgent the situation really was. Their siege had stalled, but they still held an unquestionable strategic advantage. What was the point of taking such an extreme risk, even if they won?
What was more, even if they got lucky and won, Yang Xiyi didn't think it was worth celebrating. After all, winning by doing things the wrong way was more frightening than losing.
Yang Xiyi wasn't particularly calculating or good at hiding his feelings. Most of the time, he couldn't be bothered to conceal them. Though he remained silent, the two men present had clearly sensed his displeasure.
A commander and a chief of staff, a general and a lieutenant general, were feeling pressured by a major who had been promoted less than six months ago. After a moment's thought, the latter said, "Of course, as you said, attacking both planets at once would be too reckless. So we'll concentrate our forces and launch an all-out assault on Devil's Throat A1. If all goes well, we can do the same to A2."
"...If you're worried about spreading our forces too thin, you could invite the Empire to land on A2 at the same time," Yang Xiyi said. "They have plenty of cannon fodder, after all."
"This is a purely military consideration, Deputy Chief of Staff Yang." Lieutenant General Tivington seemed to put a little extra emphasis