Chapter 523: Sure Enough, It's Not That Simple_1

Boosting morale was one thing, but Zhuang Yue's command style remained cautious and meticulous.

When she had joined the military, there were survivors from the battle of Uranus in the troops, who more than once cautioned the newcomers that underestimating the Trisolarans in battle was the most foolish act, one that could harm both others and oneself.

Therefore, a commander of Zhuang Yue's level never dared to slack off when engaging in external combat.

Starting the attack were over a thousand Monster Cannons, with the massive artillery opening fire in a cross-shooting formation.

Back in the second campaign, the number of Monster Cannons was less than 1% of what it was now, and even in such challenging circumstances, Wu Xinghai still managed to annihilate the enemy's vanguard.

Compared to that time, humanity was much stronger now.

Even the Trisolarans' Second Fleet had to avoid the brunt of the Monster Cannons, let alone the outdated warships of their First Fleet.

When the first round of artillery fire destroyed a large number of enemy ships, both Jiang Yu and Zhuang Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

The battlefield of the Second Group Army was within a controllable range.

Then Zhuang Yue turned her attention to the Trisolaran Charge Fleet. Half a year earlier, The First Army Group had already set out to confront the enemy's Charge Fleet.

They were ready to form a pincer attack with the Second Group Army and push through from both sides to uproot the industrial bases in Star System Three.

At the same time, The First Army Group was also ready to support the Second Group Army at a moment's notice, and to watch for the enemy's Stealth Warships.

Even with Combat Radar, a planetary system was too vast, with too many places to hide.

If a portion of the enemy's fleet remained motionless in some hiding place before the Second Group Army's combat radar was switched on, it would be very difficult to detect their hiding spots.

The First Army Group's battlefield was much closer than that of the Second Group Army, but they had departed later and probably wouldn't reach the predetermined battlefield until the Second Group Army's battle was over.

The Second Group Army's battle was going smoothly, but the more successful the front-line battle, the more uneasy Jiang Yu and Zhuang Yue and others became.

According to their estimates, the enemy's First Fleet was indeed weak, but should it be this weak?

At this moment, a staff member at Zhuang Yue's command center reported, "The detector has picked up abnormalities in the enemy's industrial base."

Then, on the main screen, the image of the enemy's industrial Space City in Star System Three appeared.

A simple yet uneven Space City had a long, metal coil-like structure protruding from the top, and despite the detector's repeated attempts to magnify and analyze it, the function of the metal coil remained unclear.

Gradually, the coil began to emit a dark red light, and the entire coil seemed to turn into a red stick.

Zhuang Yue asked the staff and the supporting scholars, "What are the Trisolarans up to?"

While she spoke, the coil gradually started to turn white.

A scholar speculated, "Although we don't know what they are doing, this process looks very much like energy storage!

"Perhaps this is a weapon that's currently warming up."

Zhuang Yue nodded, "Immediately command a portion of the detectors to initiate self-destruct attacks!

"Even if the enemy is about to set off fireworks, we must find a way to extinguish them!"

Previously, the Earth Corps had dispatched a massive number of detectors, all equipped with antimatter Self-Destruct Systems, with a single detector being able to destroy a large Space City.

Officers who had participated in the second campaign all lamented that indeed the tides of attack and defense had turned.

Back during the second campaign, they could only obtain rough intelligence about the enemy, and all their actions and tactics were based on conjecture.

Now, it was different. They could see clearly what the enemy was doing, the only thing left was to use Sophon to observe their actions up close within the enemy's interior.

Quickly, more than a dozen detectors began their self-destruct charge.

On their way to the charge, they were all destroyed by the weapon systems in the industrial base.

Utilizing this round of cannon fodder, Galaxy III immediately calculated the distribution and location of the enemy's weapons.

The position of that coil was the only place without offensive weapons, and it seemed like the industrial base was targeting it, hovering motionless there, almost like a sitting duck.

Thus, the second wave of hundreds of probe's self-destructive charges began, and finally one probe got close enough and immediately triggered its self-destruct mechanism.

At the same time as the probe detonated, the coil emitted a thin beam of white light.

Immediately after, antimatter annihilation began, a flash of white light passed, and approximately half of an industrial base was engulfed.

The industrial base exploded immediately, and another probe seized the opportunity to rush close and detonate, leaving only debris from the enemy's industrial base.

Zhuang Yue asked, "Was that white light a photon?"

A staff officer answered, "Yes, but perhaps because it was launched in a hurry, the speed only reached 93% of the speed of light."

The Trisolarans had also mastered photon technology, and theirs was obviously much more advanced than the human photon emission system.

Far from being disheartened, everyone felt a bit excited.

The technological gap between humanity and the Trisolarans was still narrowing, and now both sides had mastered weapons and technologies of the same caliber. Give humanity another twenty years, and we would definitely have such convenient photon emitters, too.

Compared to the second battle, the Trisolarans' weapons had been a notch above humanity's, but now that small notch no longer existed.

Even if there was still a gap, it could be compensated for with numbers.

Keep in mind, there are now eight hundred million humans on Earth. The New Continent Star System has been encouraging births in recent decades, and there are now over five hundred million humans there, plus several billion en route at the speed of light.

The total human population is around three billion.

Meanwhile, the Strategic Department's estimate of the extant Trisolaran population is only between three and six million.

Most of their population should be in their Third Fleet, which is likely composed more of civilian ships than armed forces.

This was exactly the strategic purpose of Jiang Yu's insistence on fighting this battle: to deplete the enemy's population as much as possible!

Since the enemy's small population was their weakness, let's hit them where it hurts!

Once the enemy's total population dropped to a certain number, they would naturally no longer pose a threat.

Zhuang Yue asked again, "Was the photon aimed at Earth?"

The intelligence officer replied, "No, the photon's trajectory was towards the battlefield of the Second Group Army."

Jiang Yu, Zhuang Yue, and the others fell silent again, yet another inconsistency!

Although photons were immensely powerful, they were easily evaded by Earth, let alone by more agile spacecraft.

The Trisolarans were surely aware of this, but why did they still do it?

The battlefield of the Second Group Army was quite far from Star System Three, so the photon would take some time to fly there.

By the time the photon reached the battlefield, the Second Group Army had already wiped out the enemy's fleeing fleet, easily evading the photon's attack.

Is that it?

Even Lian Jiangyu began to wonder at this moment, had humanity become so formidable that they could now toy with the Trisolarans?

Not long after the photon flew past the Second Legion's battlefield, Galaxy III reported, "The photon suddenly vanished unexpectedly!"

Jiang Yu laughed at himself mockingly, "It wasn't that easy after all!"