Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1452: Chapter 824: The Reinforcement Turmoil

After arranging all these matters, Gu Hang still hadn’t managed to deal with those two Fallen Angels.

The main reason was that the Dark Side Expedition had recently encountered two relatively significant problems.

The first one originated from Chaos.

On the North Line, the number of Chaos Great Enemies pouring out from the Scarlet Scar was increasing.

Unlike the previously encountered large-scale Slaughter Demon Army, this time the enemy did not gather a large force to confront the Alliance’s army head-on. They split into small groups, and even the Alliance’s Reconnaissance Fleet had observed conflicts among them.

Chaos itself wasn’t monolithic either.

These small warbands and small legions didn’t have a unified objective. They seemed simply provoked by the increasingly tumultuous subspace tides of the Scarlet Scar, making the real universe’s veil increasingly fragile, releasing more evil entities from the subspace who began to wreak havoc unchecked in the real universe.

In some ways, these guys were quite unfortunate. In the vastness of this universe, there were places they could go to stir up trouble. Some among them might have had the potential to achieve great feats, but instead, the moment they stepped out, they ran into the Alliance’s impregnable defenses and met their end in resentment.

Yet, the Alliance was not lucky either. The North Line of the Dark Side Expedition was essentially a purely defensive front. Being too close to the Scarlet Scar, which was an unbreachable boundary, the Alliance could not reap any benefits here. But vast military forces and strategic resources were consumed on this front.

If that were all, it would be manageable, but the key issue was the recent massive surge from the Scarlet Scar, with swarms of enemies emerging without unified goals or plans, but their sheer numbers overwhelmed. Almost the entire ’Northern Great Wall’ of the Alliance flared with alarms, facing severe challenges everywhere.

This forced the Alliance homeland to increase its support for the North Line.

Subsequently, it triggered some political upheaval.

This was mainly because several units originally destined for the West Line or South Line were now being redirected to the North Line.

The treatment in these three areas was vastly different.

In the Alliance Military, it was whispered privately that the North Line was not a good place to go. The other two fronts of the Dark Side Expedition offered opportunities to earn honors with relatively manageable casualties and losses, making them ideal assignments.

But the North Line was different: harsh conditions, bloody battles, with frequent heavy losses for units.

Also, on the South Line and West Line, after a certain level of fighting, units usually had opportunities for rest. After extensive combat, there might be opportunities to rotate to the rear for rest; soldiers might even get a chance to retire and return home after enough fighting.

Even without these opportunities, when a unit conquered a planet and needed an occupation force for a while, that was a chance for rest.

In this occupation phase, the pressures on units were considerably lower compared to heated wartime.

However, such situations were rare on the North Line. Rotation? New troops were needed every day with Chaos warbands attacking… Opportunities for rest were truly hard to come by.

No opportunity to occupy planets either.

Retire? You could retire with a broken leg or arm, but that depended on whether there happened to be supply ships returning. Trying to apply for retirement after serving a normal term could take up to twenty years; in a frontline like the North Line, facing Chaos Traitors and Demons, can one survive that long?

Surviving to return is rare enough, achieving merit even more so.

In the North Line, promoting ranks can be swift indeed. After a brutal battle, if a platoon leader dies, then a company commander dies, then a battalion commander… The higher military positions that seemed unreachable in times of peace suddenly become accessible.

But such promotions must be earned from amidst heaps of corpses and rivers of blood.

Under normal circumstances, who would willingly accept that?

Often the front is breached, land lost, and even if one tries to reclaim it later, they merely restore the front to its previous state.

Achievements? Well… it’s difficult.

On the West Line and South Line, there are clear worlds and planets as military honors. In the North Line, there is only endless iron and blood.

Not wanting to go to the North Line is understandable.

People are, of course, aware of the importance of the North Line battlefield. If the North Line can’t hold, the swarming Demons will invade the Alliance homeland from the northern part of the Spiderweb Domain. Then there would be no talk of a Dark Side Expedition; everyone would have to come back to fight the Demons and defend the homeland.

However, considering the vastness of the Alliance, the pressure on the North Line, though significant, actually only occupies 15%-20% of the total troops of the Dark Side Expedition. If you don’t go, I don’t go, but someone has to go.

The latest Expeditionary Force deployment was originally scheduled in this proportion, expecting to send forces along all three lines.

Not to mention whether the reinforcements for the North Line were upset, at least they knew where they were going and what to do, with mental preparation in advance.

The issue arose with units originally set to depart for the West Line and South Line. Initially excited, looking forward to the Star Sea to earn their glory, they suddenly received a notice to take half of the forces from these two directions and send them to the North Line.

If they’re incapable or simple-minded, that’s one thing.

However, many people displayed their skills in this process.

Those with connections tried to use them to avoid being selected;

Those without connections but unwilling to go made a fuss, hoping to use their uproar to secure a chance not to go.

And some who originally didn’t need to go were forced into the list to go to the North Line due to the upheaval caused by the first two groups, leading to further uproar.

Initially, it was just some undercurrents, but it quickly turned into a major uproar.

When it became a significant issue, Marshal Tadeusz, overseeing the Alliance Military and Political Department, upon noticing the situation, decisively suppressed and handled it by enforcing adherence to the original list.

Those who had paid political, economic, or interest-related costs naturally became even more dissatisfied.

Some small-scale mutinies occurred, alongside increasingly heated discussions escalating within the political system of the Alliance.

All of this inevitably reached Gu Hang’s ears.

It even appeared on his system interface where he could see a decline in the Alliance’s governance stability.